Naruto the true ninja
by phoenix3488
Summary: Heir to two of the most powerful clans that existed in the ninja world, Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze must protect his legacy at all costs. However, outsiders won't stop until they find the Namikaze's secret. Naruto with elements from Kekkaishi.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto or Kekkaishi. It is the propriety of Kishimoto and ? respectively.

Edited: 05/12/2013

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**Prologue**

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A lone figure sat on the hokage monument, more precisely on the fourth hokage's head. A black cloak covered his body from prying eyes. He had pitch black spiky hairs with some fringes hiding his left eye. This was Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, the sole heir of the Uzumaki and Namikaze clans, two of the most secretive clans in the elemental countries.

The Uzumaki originated from the whirlpools country. For outsiders, they appeared to be a simple clan. Unfortunately for them, Iwa, the hidden ninja village of earth country wiped them out at the start of the third secret shinobi war. The only survivor of the massacre, a girl named Uzumaki Kushina, fled to Konoha, the hidden village of fire country. Kushina then became a ninja of konoha and a very good one at that. Not overly known like some of konoha's legends, but she was deadly. She married the fourth hokage — Namikaze Minato — before dying, leaving behind two twins, a boy and a girl. Unfortunately the girl, like her mother, was poisoned. She was able to survive the unknown poison but not enough to get out of the coma she was in. But that is a story for another time.

Coming back to the Uzumaki, they were a very secretive clan. So much that none, outside the clan, knew they had a bloodline, more precisely a doujutsu. The reason it was never discovered was that the pupils didn't change upon activation. The eye only had one level yet it held so much potential… It allowed the user to analyse anything they saw, especially the chakra manipulation used whenever someone casts a jutsu. An accomplished user could easily understand and replicate a jutsu if he so wished. That made them excellent in creating new techniques, as they could clearly see the mechanics behind it.

The Namikaze clan was along the same lines but even more secretive. They existed long before the Uchiha and Senju. They helped build konoha, but erased their implication from history and kept to the shadows. Like the Uzumaki, they were reduced to only one member because of the wars. That last member being Namikaze Minato, the yondaime hokage. The latter died fighting the Kyuubi no Yoko twelve years ago.

Like the Uzumaki, they possessed a secret ability, which granted them the name _Kekkaishi_. They could create kekkai — or barrier as they called it — to use against demons, and the like. This wasn't all of course. The ability revolved around the manipulation of time and space. This information would have labelled them a high threat to anyone. Using this ability, the yondaime was able to KILL a bijuu, something that was deemed impossible before then. To this day, no one knows how he did it, only that he was surrounded by a somber energy sphere that disintegrated everything it touched.

Another secretive aspect of the clan was their legacy. Indeed, every Namikaze had one duty above all else: _to guard an important object under their compound_. That's why no outsider ever stepped inside the compound. Not counting the numerous security seals surrounding the place.

Still standing on the hokage monument, Naruto looked at the beautiful sight that was Konoha, sighing and lazing around. The chuunin exams was due to start in a week in Konoha. This event also marked the first time outsiders will learn of his existence. Something that was hidden by the village… until now.

_Assuming the other countries are not already aware of my existence. I wouldn't be surprised if they were, considering the amount of spies crawling over the village. _ He told himself while scowling in distaste.

He had graduated a year and a half ago, one year in advance, and was now twelve years old. After graduating, he had been assigned to a jounin named Maito Gai, and two teammates : Tenten and Rock Lee. They took their training seriously, but much of his training was done in away from prying eyes. It wasn't that he didn't trust his teammates… well not really. It is just that he didn't adhere to their methods.

'_What with one of them specialising in Taijutsu, and the other in weapons, such foolishness. No one should ever specialise in this world, unless they want a one way ticket to hell._' He had of course told them just that, but like stubborn five years old, they didn't listen. _'Add to that, a stupid jounin sensei encouraging such behaviour. Really the shinobi world has fallen so low'_.

If you haven't noticed by now, then know that Naruto is very disheartened with today's shinobis. That is why he didn't use the same methods for training. He didn't neglect any of the shinobi arts, instead, did his best to train all of them to the best of his capabilities. That is why others thought of him as a genius, but for him, it was just the result of hard work, and a lot of determination.

He began his training at the tender age of five, and since then, hadn't stopped. He first started with chakra control and building his reserves. After that, he learned the academy justus. By his 6 birthday, he had already mastered the _Bunshin _, the _Kawarimi_ and the _henge no jutsu_. Still, his supply of chakra was too small to be any good in the field, so he hid the fact that he could already graduate in favour of more training.

Because he couldn't start his physical training — being too young —, he used the time to master his mother's doujutsu: the _bunsekigan_ or analytic eye. Around the same time he worked on his stealth, figuring it'd be a good advantage over the current ninjas.

Of course such training method couldn't be expected from a boy his age. So the question was _where he found the necessary information._ And the answer was the vast Namikaze's library, which contained every subject possible, considering the clan had been alive even before the ninja era.

By his seven, Naruto had mastered the bunsekigan to an incredible level. The doujutsu granted him the ability to see the body even better than the Byakugan. While the Byakugan could see the tenketsus of the target, the bunsekigan could, not only see them too, but also weak points in the target's body, like old wounds, weak bones. Those parts glowed yellow under its eyes. But that wasn't all, he could also see the shape the chakra took whenever someone cast a jutsu, be it Ninjutsu or Genjutsu.

His stealth training also progressed well, already being able to reduce his chakra to civilian level. His chakra building and control exercises also paid off considering his reserved had increased to the level of a genin, while his control was equivalent to a high chuunin, having mastered the leaf floating and tree climbing exercises. Seeing his results, he proceeded to train in ninjutsu's theory, seals, and taijutsu. Of course he kept building up his chakra control and reserves.

By 8, his reserves were comparable to a high genin, with a control ranging from low to mid jounin level, having mastered water walking. Like all members of his family, he was very proficient in seals, and had progressed to novice level. There were four levels in seals: _Beginner_, _Novice_, _Apprentice_ and _Master_. With each level, the difficulty increased exponentially, so he knew that at the pace he was going, he wouldn't be able to attain even apprentice level before graduating the academy. So he began searching for ways to increase his training speed.

For the ninjutsu's theory, he was able to learn, understand and master the twelve hand signs used to shape justus. Thank to his bunsekigan, he understood perfectly the workings of the signs. What they did was manipulate the chakra outside the body, for it to take a precise shape. Each hand seal gave a precise shape to the chakra. But that wasn't all. He made a very huge discovery when he looked at the shape formed by the chakra when he used the bunshin no jutsu. The shape looked similar to the shape taken by seals, and using the latter as a basis, he was able to devise a language akin to seals. Using this language, he found himself able to read the final shape of any jutsu like a book, and then understand everything about it.

This was huge, because he could now understand everything about a jutsu with but a look. He could find its objectives, strengths, weaknesses, elemental nature, and so on. He could even significantly reduce the number of seals needed to cast the jutsu, because its most important aspect was the final chakra shape created by the mixing of all the hand seals. In other words, if he found a shortcut, he could reduce the seals number. He also started working on manipulating his chakra outside his body using just his concentration. Thus begin his meditation's exercises to increase his mental control.

That same year, he was supposed to enter the ninja academy. Not that he had been very thrilled, as he guessed — correctly — it'd cut down his training time.

By his 9, he had immensely improved, thanks to a discovery he made earlier in the year. Indeed, while searching for a way to increase his training speed, he came across the _kage bunshin no jutsu_. A jutsu that allowed its user to create a clone with half his chakra. What made the technique so special was its ability to transfer back to the user, everything his clones learned, except the physical stuff. Unfortunately, it used way too much chakra, thus remained unattainable for Naruto with his little reserves. Even jounin couldn't create more than five at a time, for a long period or for training purpose.

But he didn't gave up and instead studied the manipulation of chakra done by the cross shaped seal of the jutsu. The results were stunning to say the least. He had assumed the manipulation of chakra behind the cross shaped seal would be simple, but this was far from the truth. The shape created by the seal was extremely complex with layers upon layers of information. Fortunately, thanks to his doujutsu, he decoded it completely, and was then able to copy the aspect of the jutsu he was interested in, like the part that made the knowledge return to the original and the independence of the clone thoughts.

Then he learned the _Tsuchi bunshin_ or earth clone, before modifying it to implement the parts he took from the kage bunshin. Before, the earth clone used three hand seals, but now, it used seven. His tweaking over, his newly created earth clone could now send back to the original, everything they learned except the physical stuff. They also weren't dependent to the original, and could properly function at more than 5 miles from the user.

Another test later and Naruto discovered he could sustain 50 advanced earth clones for a training day. It could have been higher if he had mastered earth elemental manipulation.

Using this new training method, he was able to increase his chakra control to a staggering low Kage level, although his reserve didn't increase much and he found himself with low chuunin chakra level. His progress in seals were astounding to say the least, and were close to Apprentice level. At the same time, he trained in a taijutsu style called the 18 Dragon Palms. It was a style that relied heavily on palms strike and speed. But could be even more devastating than the Jyuken if mastered.

By his 10, he had finally mastered chakra control to a level even surpassing Tsunade of the sannin thanks to the clone training and his relatively low reserves. He was an accomplished Apprentice in seals and would soon reach the rank of master. His stealth training had done more than he could hope for. Being able to completely mask his entire existence, even from sensor ninjas, was no small feat. He could stand beside someone yet he wouldn't be sensed unless the person was directly looking at him. Additionally, he learned the skill sensor ninja used and could now find anyone he knew in a mile radius.

It was around that time he started learning genjutsu's theory, pursuing his desire to learn everything he could. Most of all, he hadn't forgotten his dream of healing his sister, so he planned to devote a lot of time to the medicinal arts.

By the time of his graduation, which was at eleven years old, he once again increased his chakra reserve to a mid chuunin level. He had mastered his seals studies, and was now a master of it. He did the same with the Dragon palms, and was now learning the Piercing Dragon, a style that relied heavily on the lower limbs, and fight in mid air. He learned the way of the medic nin and was now a certified field healer.

The most important thing about that year was that he created several seals. Among them were two very special seals. The first one was the _Gravity seal_, which allowed the user to increase the gravity around their body. The second one was the _Density seal_, which increased the air resistance beside the user. The two combined would increase the speed and strength of the user tremendously. He was a ninja, who heavily believed in speed after all, like his father had, before him.

After his graduation, he was assigned to Team 9 with Maito Gai as jounin sensei, and Rock Lee and Tenten as teammates. The team had been genins to this day, which was about a year and a half. During that time, he trained his speed and strength using his seals and now he was at a level of a high jounin when it came to it. His chakra level increased to low jounin. Alone from the prying eyes of his teammates, he learned and mastered his elemental affinities which were _Wind_ and _Earth_.

Using his clones for training, he mastered them to perfection. Which also increased the number of clones he could create for his training. His medical abilities increased extremely well, to the point where only Tsunade of the sannin surpassed him — so his fellows claimed —. He also mastered the second taijutsu style he learned, the piercing dragon.

Finally, he started his training in his kekkaishi bloodline. The training was very complex and was used by generations upon generations of Namikaze. It involved much meditation, and focus training, as the power and resistance of the barrier he created, were directly linked to his will and focus. As of today, his barrier could resist a B-rank jutsu at most. But overall, it was very good.

Right now, his overall level was about high chuunin to low jounin, do to his lack of experience. But that was when he fought fairly or in a direct fight. Using his speciality, which lay in the shadows, he could even give a sannin a run for his money.

Naruto looked at konoha, before sighing. '_How the mighty have fallen. To think that such an once powerful village would let others trample on them. Soon, I will return it to its glory and then I'd unleash my plan!_' he thought before sinking into the ground as if he was made of earth too.

* * *

Suna was one of the five great shinobi villages, although considered as the less powerful of the five. An explanation to this status was the lack of water and food readily available for the villagers. Suna being situated in an arid and sandy area, it was understandable. Another reason for their status was the village lack of number in term of ninja as they favoured quality over quantity unlike other villages. They greatly invested in the training of their young ninjas, which was the reason behind the concept that suna genin are usually more powerful than the other countries' genins.

If their status wasn't enough, a little over 4 years ago, the Daimyo of wind country reduced the amount of missions he gave them. Those missions were lost to Konoha.

That didn't sit well with them, as they were then forced to reduce their staff now that they had too many ninjas for too little missions. This in turn, decreased their power significantly.

It came to a point where they couldn't take it anymore, and when the traitorous Sannin, Orochimaru, came to them, proposing them a very interesting and daring plan to attack konoha, they leapt at the opportunity. Succeeding in their endeavour would allow them to regain their Daimyo's trust and power. As a side-effect, deal a huge blow to konoha, and obtain their deserved revenge.

The plan was rather simple : _use the chuunins exams to launch a surprise attack on konoha_. The latter would, not only be surprised, but forced to protect every noble that came to watch the finals, unless they wanted to lose face in the eyes of the public. After all, no one would want to hire a bunch of ninjas to protect them in this wild world, if they couldn't even protect their guests in their own village.

But before that, they had to understand Konoha's security measures as much as possible. Which is the reason for the current gathering in the war council room. Early that day, the intelligence division received an important information about their future target. One that could very well change the tide of the soon to be invasion.

Inside the room were gathered the heads of various departments, including the elders of the village. Among them were the Sabaku children and their sensei Baki, a powerful and well known jounin. This team was present because the information pertained to their future mission in konoha. The room was silenced when an indescribable masked ninja appeared. He bowed to those present before the head of the council, which was the kazekage, spoke.

"It has come to our attention that you have received an important missive concerning konoha ?" he asked without preamble. The anbu nodded, and upon being given the signal to elaborate, he opened a scroll and looked at the audience.

"As you certainly know, we had been able to plant several spies in konoha. But none of them were able to obtain this information until recently." He paused to give everyone time to digest what he had already said.

"It'd seem that the yondaime hokage …" at which everyone flinched, as they remembered how powerful he was "… had a son." (1)

Like a broken dam, yells came from everywhere. The screams were that of surprise, fear and even disbelief. None of them had liked the yondaime for the simple reason that he was the only ninja to ever attain the SS-rank with a flee on sight order. His power was so great that he could wipe out several platoons of ninjas in the blink of an eye. This was just how scary the man was.

Additionally, he was the first and only ninja to kill a bijuu. And the most powerful one at that.

To this day, no one knew how he did it. Only that the ability he used was either a bloodline or a secret jutsu he created, as he was rumoured to be an inventor of a sort. Stacking these information, the idea of him having a son, was just… just… unthinkable. Such a thing would no doubt be the catalyst of another shinobi war. No village worth its salt wanted the rise of a ninja of such caliber again. Controlling him would be such a nightmare…

"SILENCE" yelled the kazekage, silencing everyone, before returning his gaze to the masked ninja.

"Is it possible your man made a mistake?" he coldly questioned the spokesman.

"Unlikely Kazekage — sama."

"I see!" His head lowered, the Kazekage took his time to analyse the situation.

Meanwhile, Baki and his team harboured a frown on their faces.

"Neh, baki — sensei, why are everyone so frightened at the idea that the yondaime hokage had a son? It is not like it'd change anything neh?" Temari the elder daughter of the kazekage wondered.

Baki looked at her before answering. "You wouldn't understand because you haven't witnessed that man in action. The yondaime, just by himself, brought Iwa and Kumo to his knees. That was just how powerful he was. He could have wiped out those two villages but decided not to. When the shinobi world learned of his death while fighting the Kyuubi, they rejoiced, because him alive meant that Konoha could conquer any village, even if all of the great villages were allied." He paused to confirm that his students were listening.

"Him having a son means somewhere out there, a boy holds the potential to become just as dangerous as he was. I wouldn't be surprised if he was trained from an earlier age to be as powerful as the yellow flash. And heaven forbid, if his son learned the technique that made his father famous, or the one he used to kill the Kyuubi, then our operation is doomed to fail." He finished grimly, conveying to the genins just how dire the matter was. At least two of them anyway, as the third one with red hair, simply shrugged.

The kazekage looked again at the anbu.

"What else did the spies learned about him?" The masked ninja peered at the scroll for a moment, before answering grimly.

"The spy wasn't able to learn much more, as he came across this information only because Konoha intents to show him off to the world." That made everyone in the room narrow their eyes.

"Though he did learn that the yondaime indeed had a bloodline that allowed him to kill the kyuubi, and rumours has it that his son is learning how to use it." That did it, as several council members shouted in anger and fright. It was easy to understand their distress, as their plan was based on the fact that no one in Konoha could stop the rampaging Ichibi once it was unleashed. But with the presence of the yondaime's son, and his apparent ability to kill a bijuu, they were in a very dangerous position.

And apparently the sabaku children realised it too, if the widening of their eyes was anything to go by. But the masked ninja wasn't finished and after the calm was restored, he continued.

"the spy was also able to determine the likely person, using the participants in the chuunins exams." he looked at the Kazekage who muttered '_go on_'.

"The participant who fit the criteria and age is called Naruto. No first name was available, which further increased the spy's suspicions. Age 12, which also confirms the apparent birth of said heir. He began the academy at 7 and graduated at 11, as the rookie of his year. His current team is composed of Rock Lee a taijutsu specialist and Tenten, a weapon specialist with their sensei being Maito Gai."

He paused a moment for everyone to digest what he just said before continuing.

"He is rumoured to be a prodigy just like his father. He doesn't favour any shinobi arts, as he was exceptional in all of them. He is even rumoured to have delved in seals just like his father. One thing to note is that, he was far stronger than the Hyuga genius — Hyuga Neji, who is now a very well known chuunin — as Neji graduated second in the academy, behind him. The only reason he's still a genin is that his sensei wanted them to take the exam in Konoha."

"Lastly, he is an accomplished medic nin say to be almost on par with Tsunade of the sannin." At that everyone widened their eyes even further, clearly stunned by the information. While the kazekage was silently analysing everything he heard, while fuming on the inside.

'_How have we missed this until now? It'd seem that Konoha still has many tricks under their sleeves. That aside, considering the abilities presented, it looks like he favoured medicine over everything. But why is that? Such talented ninja wouldn't favour this an art just like that. He must have a reason for this._'

He looked again at the masked ninja.

"Is there a reason for his focus on medicine?" The audience seemed surprised, not having thought of such peculiar choice of career.

"There is kazekage — sama. Apparently the boy has a twin sister who has been in coma for the last twelve years. So the spy theorised that it objective is to heal his sister."

Hearing this, the wheels turned inside the kazekage's head. "Is there any way to gain access to his sister?" The coldness in his voice reminded everyone just why he was said to be the most ruthless kazekage in history.

"None Unfortunately. After an assassination attempt on her, which ended in a failure, the boy removed her from the public hospital and is now taking care of her by himself. Rumours has it that she is safely tucked in the Namikaze's compound, which is not only in an undisclosed area, but also inaccessible by anyone not of Namikaze's blood." Finished the ninja much to everyone disappointment.

But the kazekage wasn't deterred by that and gazed at the Sabaku's team.

"Team Sabaku, your new mission during the second part of the chuunin exams will be to learn everything there is to know about the boy, and if possible …" He looked at specifically at the red headed boy. "… kill him. Am I clear?" He finished harshly, to which they responded in the affirmative.

"You're all dismissed until further notice." The kazekage said before standing and going out of the chamber in a foul mood.

* * *

**Unknown area close to Fire and Rice's borders**

* * *

At the same time, two people were holding another meeting. One of this people was the most sought after traitor of konoha, the snake sannin Orochimaru. In front of him was his right-handed man Yakushi Kabuto. The object of their meeting was also concerning the recently revealed heir of the Namikaze clan.

Kabuto had just finished informing orochimaru of the Namikaze heir and to say the sannin was furious would be an understatement. He was gnashing his teeth, silently fuming.

'_So even in death that bastard of Namikaze spits on me? Not only did he took away my rightfully position as hokage, but now I learn that his child is alive and kicking. Damn him to hell. If I could, I'd raise him from the dead just to kill him again._'

Kabuto gave his master a moment to calm himself, before continuing his report. "While I couldn't learn much about him, I did discover a peculiar ability of his. It'd seem that he's able to sense people around him like a sensor ninja. This was confirmed when I found myself unable to get close to him without being detected. So you should approach him with great caution, if that's your goal."

Orochimaru didn't seem to have heard him as the snake sannin was deep in thought. Waiting for his reply, Kabuto recalled the time he tried to spy on the boy. It was during one of the Namikaze's team training session. Because of Maito Gai's presence, he was forced to approach with great caution. It had been difficult but in the end, he had been able to fool the jounin's senses, getting close enough to the team to observe the training session.

Despite this success, he quickly found out that Naruto was aware of his presence. This was confirmed when the boy had looked pointedly at his hiding position. While Naruto had stayed impassive, he couldn't help but feel like the boy was mocking him, finding it laughable that he tried to sneak behind him. Yet Naruto never mentioned his presence to his teammates, a fact that had troubled him greatly. The boy was simply too hard to read, he had concluded that day.

"Were you able to ascertain his relationship with the upper members of the village?" He heard Orochimaru's question, to which he promptly replied.

"I was. There is a subtle disagreement between Sarutobi and him. From what I was able to gather, his views of the shinobi world are more aligned to those of Danzo. This could explain the close relationship between the two."

Orochimaru chuckled a bit. "So Sarutobi wasn't able to convert him to his view? At least he's more intelligent than his father if he was able to escape the sandaime's brainwashing. Two preys instead of one for the chuunin exams… this is getting better and better kukukukuku." He laughed creepily before sinking underground, leaving behind a sighing kabuto.

'_At last he's gone. With him around, I always feel like my life is in danger._' Thought kabuto before going back to Konoha, his meeting already forgotten.

* * *

**In konoha: Namikaze's compound**

* * *

A week passed since then, and it was finally the day of the chuunin exams. While other competitors were resting for the exam, Naruto was sitting in a special room, in the Namikaze compound, training. He didn't care about resting because he knew every stage of the exam, thanks to his spying activities. He knew that for the first exam, nothing physically tenuous was involved so he wasn't that worried. Being a man who valued knowledge, whenever he could, he'd spy on anyone to acquire new information. Be they allies or enemies.

He sat in a lowland with some small trees. Surrounding him were hundred of flying crows. Though he kept his eyes closed in concentration.

_'Hum, one hundred and 6 crows surrounding me.'_ He thought, with his right hand in the ram seal. A moment later, he opened his eyes and started moving his right wrist. The movement was so fast, only a blur was each movement, one of the crows was confined within a green square barrier. Despite their panicked and erratic movements, none of the birds escaped. And after only twenty seconds, every crows had been captured.

His task done, Naruto slowly exhaled before rising from the ground.

"Alpha, end of the training, waiting for the results." He voiced, seemingly to himself. A moment later, the surrounding area vanished, leaving Naruto standing in the middle of a white room. Suddenly a voice was heard above him.

"Subject: Naruto Namikaze;

Result of test number 10:

Accuracy : nine out of ten

Speed : five Kekkais per second.

Strength : ten out of ten

The subject is allowed to advance to level 11 for further training."

Naruto smiled a little at that. '_Finally, it's over. Another step closer to reaching father's level. And then, I will surpass him._'

He stared at the room once again, still surprised by its capabilities. The Namikaze being master of seals, designed this room in a way that it created a sentient artificial intelligence. The latter's purpose was to provide the perfect training method and exercise to the Namikaze clan members. More specifically to correctly learn how to use their bloodline. The room also sorted the exercises in gradual levels. This way, the trainee was sure to get the training adapted to their level.

While Naruto didn't know the last level of this program, he knew that his father last recorded level was 25. He was using this as a basis to know which level he needed to reach until he deemed himself strong enough.

With his training completed for the day, he went back to his room to cloth himself. He wore black anbu pants, with a black sleeveless muscle t-shirt. Above it was a black jacket. Finally he had a fingerless glove on his right hand. That was to hide the symbol of a Namikaze's heir that was on his palm. He didn't want anyone to see it, considering the number of people out there who would recognize and understand its meaning.

Finally ready for the day, he stepped out of his compound and moved toward the rendezvous point he and his team agreed upon.

**In front of the ninja's academy**

Lee and Tenten were waiting for their third teammate Naruto, in front of the academy building. While waiting they thought about their accomplishments since they became a team. First was Tenten. She was probably the weakest of the team but despite this, she was still very powerful by genin standard in her opinion. But she also knew that Naruto found her and Lee weak. And he had made his thoughts well known.

She specialized in weapons fighting, something her teammate disagreed with. But what could she do? Unlike clan members, she didn't have special abilities. She was average in genjutsu and taijutsu, thanks to Gai. But that was it. Because she was an orphan, she was forced to train by herself, considering Gai was a taijutsu specialist — not really her strong point —. She had always wondered why she had been placed in such a team — the jounin sensei couldn't train her — and she had come up with the answer that the higher ups didn't think she would amount to anything, and didn't want to waste resources on her.

She still remembered Naruto's parting words the first time they trained together:

_You always say that you want to be as powerful as Tsunade of the sannin. Do you think that she became that powerful by specializing so much in one area ? Nevertheless, you really should be more cautious about who you want to emulate, always saying that Tsunade is the best, and yadda yadda. It could come to bite you in the end._

Even now, she still didn't know what he meant by that.

In regard to Lee, he was a taijutsu specialist. Born with the curse of not being able to use chakra for ninjutsu, he has been mocked and ridiculed by his peers in the academy and was called dead last. This left a profound mark on his psyche, more than he knew at the moment. Since becoming a member of team 9, he was given special training by Gai, and had progressed extremely in taijutsu.

Of course, he knew that Gai was favoring him, and also that some of the techniques he learned were surprising good to counter the style his teammate Naruto had shown, but he didn't think much about it. Something he disliked though, was the way Naruto kept putting him down. Always saying that he should have become a samurai with his mentality. He hated it so much to a point that every time he saw Naruto, he wanted to ram a kunai in his head. Indeed, his hate was that high.

Unfortunately, he wasn't ready to fight against someone like Naruto. He knew that in a fight, Naruto would destroy, no question asked. After all, his growing resentment made him quite aware of Naruto capabilities. That's how he noticed something scary about his teammate, something that sent shiver up his spine every time he thought about it. And that was the way Naruto fought. Which he concluded was like a true shinobi. Silently, stealthily, and without mercy. A style completely opposed to his, and a thousand time more effective.

On several occasions he tried to copy Naruto's skills, like moving without leaving any traces, but he couldn't achieve it. Something that naruto laughed in front of his face. '_One day I will make him beg for mercy for everything he did to me_' he thought viciously with a cold smirk. Something, that didn't go, unnoticed by Tenten who frowned at that.

They were about to enter the academy without naruto when say person appeared in front of them, silently as always.

"I didn't make you wait too much I hope." Naruto with emotionlessly. His teammates simply shrugged before they made their way to the examination's room.

**A few minutes later**

Tenten and Naruto were waiting just behind the door of the examination's room, for Lee. Just a moment ago, they came across team 7 composed of Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura and Sai. After a little altercation with some chunins, Lee asked them to go ahead, and that he would follow. Of course Naruto immediately knew that he wanted to fight the Uchiha, a big mistake in his opinion. That is why he sent a clone to spy on them.

That is how he knew that his fight against the Uchiha was rather short with Lee easily the winner. He was extremely disappointed by the level of the Uchiha, considering the rumors he had heard from the villagers, but now, he vowed to never trust villagers and anyone for that matters without checking the information first. Unfortunately something happened during the confrontation that bothered him…

At that moment, Lee came back, before stopping in front of them. And he was immediately berated by Tenten

"What took you ?" she wondered, glaring at Lee who raised his arms in defeat.

"Ma ma ma Tenten — chan, I was just testing something"

"And you couldn't test it before the exam ?"

"Naaa, but now everything is fine, we can go kick some asses, neh Naruto?" he finished looking at Naruto smiling. But the boy could tell that it was faked, something that made him narrows his eyes.

He turned without even glancing at Lee, walking towards the door, but just before opening it, he addressed Lee.

"I knew you were stupid but this is the icing of the cake. You used the Kage Buyo against an Uchiha while he had the sharingan activated. What do you think happened?" At that Lee's eyes widened

'_Oh shit, I forget about the copying ability. Damn I just gave him my technique_' thought a frustrated Lee, before looking back at Naruto as if he had a revelation. "Eh, how did you know about my fight with the Uchiha ?" he asked, which shocked Tenten. '_He fought the Uchiha ? Is he mad ?'_ she thought.

Naruto, still not looking answered "It doesn't matter how I know. What matter thought is the fact that you gave away information about me." He replied icily, while turning around to look at Lee in the eyes.

"I don't care if you give information about yourself to possible enemy, but when you start giving them on me, then it concerns me."

Each words were said with such a flat voice that even Tenten was frightened. Despite this, she couldn't help but notice that Lee wasn't cowed in the least. '_What happened to you Lee ? You've become like this ever since our last mission in Rice country_' she thought sadly.

"This led me to believe that you had an ulterior motive in giving him that information. Like you wanted to attract attention towards me?" Said Naruto. At that moment, Lee's eyes squinted a little, almost unnoticeably to anyone. But unfortunately for him, Naruto wasn't just anyone and saw it.

"I see!" he said slowly, before reaching a pocket on his jacket, and retrieving a black scroll with the Lee's initials on it. That stunned his two teammates, having an idea of what it was.

"You remember when I said that I was looking into you disability to find a way for you to use chakra?" Naruto questioned a stunned Lee who nodded. "Then you will be glad to hear that I finished it sometimes ago. I was just waiting for you to give me a good reason to give it to you. But after what you just did…"

Suddenly, Naruto sent chakra in a special spot on the scroll. Immediately, said scroll bursted in flames, before leaving only ash. This happened in front of the shocked eyes of both tenten and Lee.

"I hope for your sake that we aren't put against each other in this tournament…" Said Naruto whirling around and leaving the two still shocked teens.

After a moment, tenten too left, leaving Lee alone. Soon though, the shocked look transformed into a wicked smirk. '_As if I care about what you think of me and that stupid scroll for that matter. Someday I will make you pay. And this day will come sooner than you think._' He thought before following his team inside the room while touching his chest, smirking at what he felt just above it. If someone were still in the same room, they would have felt the sinister chakra that was emanating from Lee just for an instant, before it completely disappeared.

* * *

**Authors Note:**

Hi everyone, I am back with another story. This one will be fantastic if I have anything to say. There will be many plots and subplots.

I know I haven't updated Sylar's Bloodline since sometimes now, but fear not. I will update it just after this one, which means tonight at the latest. I am just re-reading it to make sure there isn't any errors.

Also tell me what you think about this story. I will update it soon as I have many ideas for it right now. See you soon everyone.

**(1)**: This sentence is similar to the story _Kurei_ from _Adrien Skywalker. _A very good story, like all his stories anyway. Just to advise anyone so there won't be any problems later on.


	2. Orochimaru's Shock

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Kekkaishi. It is the propriety of Kishimoto and ? respectively.**

Hello everyone. I present you the second chapter of Naruto the true ninja. I hope you like it.

Edited: 05/12/2013

* * *

**_Chapter 1: Orochimaru's shock_**

* * *

Team 9 stood in front of their assigned gate, one of the entrances that led to the forest of death. They were waiting for the signal that would announce the start of the second part of the chuunin exam. Silence reigned there as they kept their mouth shut. But that was to be expected. After all, they weren't hailed as the strongest genin team of konoha for nothing. They knew when to joke around and when to be serious. And in this case they had to be serious.

The first part of the exams was interesting to say the least, despite being uneventful. Nothing worth mentioning happened. Unless you were named Naruto. He was after all, an information gathering specialist. During the test, he gathered much information that would prove useful in the near future.

The test consisted in displaying your ability to retrieve secret information from an enemy without being caught or detected. Said enemy could be anything, ranging from a civilian to a ninja. Of course, the chuunin examinee needed to understand the goal of the test in the first place, before even trying anything. Only then was he required to design a ploy to acquire said information by any means necessary, like stealing or cheating.

In this case, the information was the answers to the written test given to them.

During the test, Naruto had observed the methods used by foreign and local ninjas to cheat, and was sorely disappointed. None of them used a completely undetectable method. The most disappointing though, was the fact that the Uchiha and the Hyuga weren't disqualified for using their dojutsu, which was clearly visible for anyone to see. But it was to be expected with a village favoring those with bloodline limit. It was a little ironic considering the fact that he himself had been and still was favored because he had a bloodline.

Anyway, before the start of the exam, a genin by the name of Yakushi Kabuto, which Naruto recognized as the one who tried to spy on him and his team in the past, gave the other konoha genins, information about the ninjas taking part in this exam. More specifically Sabaku no Gaara from Suna and Rock Lee from the leaf.

When the Uchiha pried for information about Naruto, the latter immediately used a modified _Kawarimi_ to vanish the card containing information about him, thoroughly disappointing more than one person in the room. The action went unnoticed and in the end, no one was able to find anything on him.

And finally, during the written exam, he noticed two ninjas spying on him. The first was the female ninja on the sand team. While the other was a grass kunoichi. Using his _bunsekigan_or analytic eye, he learned that the grass kunoichi wasn't who she appeared to be, but someone else because he could see behind her face, the face of Orochimaru the snake sannin.

That disgusted him thoroughly. He almost lost his lunch there because of it. Nevertheless, he used this great opportunity to analyze the snake sannin, hoping to find any weakness or something about him that could help should he be forced to fight against him. He also took care of memorizing his chakra signature, so he could track him easily or be aware of his presence in the vicinity.

Team 9 regained their awareness when they heard a high-pitched sound that seemed to come from everywhere. It signaled the start of the second part of the exam. Around the same time, the gate in front of them was swung sideway, giving them a clear view of the forest of death.

"Ok guys let's go!" Lee yelled enthusiastically, before the group jumped on the trees in front of them, to quickly move through he forest. They had already come up with a strategy, which consisted in following Naruto as he guided them to one of the closest team, so that they could steal their scroll.

The three were jumping from trees to trees rather quickly, and for anyone who happened to look at them, only a blur would be discernible. They moved like that for a little over 20 minutes before Naruto abruptly stopped, forcing the others followsuit and look around for any threats. When they found none, they stared at Naruto who was still looking ahead with a frown on his face.

"Why have you stopped?" Tenten asked Naruto with a questioning look on her face. Still looking ahead, he replied.

"There is a ninjas team approximately one hundred meters from here."

"Then why have we stopped that far away?" Lee asked in surprise. Naruto thought for a moment on the way he should answer before making his mind.

"Simple, one of them has some talent as a sensor. If we kept moving toward them like we did, he would have sensed us and immediately alerted the others of our presence. Or rather both of your presence, considering you two lack the necessary skill to hide your energy."

At first, the two nodded their head in understanding, but when Naruto mentioned their shortcomings, they clenched their fists a little in silent anger. '_That bastard._' Were their thoughts.

"Then what are we supposed to do then, oh great one." The sarcastic tone wasn't lost by anyone, prompting Tenten to muffle her giggles. Naruto didn't pay any mind to it, and calmly moved forward.

"Simple _oh lower one_, I will take care of that." Just before he disappeared, leaving no trace at all, not even a smoke, simply nothing. That shocked the two to silence.

'_He is improving every day. At this rate, I won't ever catch up to him._' Thought a frustrated Lee. Tenten also thought something close to it, but let it go.

**With the foreign team**

Takeshi was a very practical and underhanded ninja. He used everything at his disposal, to reach his goals. One of those was to become the leader of Ame country. He knew that to reach such position, he'd have to become not only very powerful, but somehow acquire several supporters. Unfortunately for him, his plans went down the drain for one simple reason: _PEIN_.

He hated that name so much. To him that name was the worst thing in the whole world. Oh he had hated many things in his life. He had despised his parents for not being members of a great clan. He had despised his father for being a weak hearted fool who couldn't stomach war and abandoned the ninja force. He had despised ninjas from clans who looked down on him. Most of all, he had hated himself for his lack of bloodline.

Yet nothing compared to the hate he held for the name _Pein_, although hearing that name brought him a feeling of fear and many more. But he was right to fear that name or rather the owner of that name.

He had been disgusted at first, by _Hanzo the salamander's defeat _at the hand of the supposed 'God' of Ame _Pein_. What disgusted him was the fact that someone as legendary as Hanzo couldn't even beat a rookie upstart as he had thought Pein to be. But those thoughts were quickly dismissed after witnessing said _upstart_ murder in cold blood anyone related to the late Hanzo. Be they children, or women, he killed them all, leaving no one alive. If you were among Hanzo folds, you were immediately executed.

The ruthlessness of that event brought him back to the reality, and he immediately switched side as many others did, as they knew they had little to no chance of beating someone that could level their village instantly. No matter, he still kept his training as if nothing happened. After all, his motto was and still is _The strong dominate the weak_. So when he was given the mission to gather any available information about the newly revealed heir of the Namikaze clan, he jumped at the chance to prove himself and further advance in rank.

His team and he were calmly walking in the forest without a care in the world. After all, they may be genin officially, but truthfully each of them was at least mid chuunin. They were walking in a triangle formation, with Takeshi in the front and the other two behind.

Suddenly, he heard a rattling coming from the bushes on his left. Listening to their hard gained reflex, the three turned their heads towards the sound to see… a squirrel.

Unfortunately for them, by turning their head, they completely opened their right side, and it was with no surprise that 3 senbons flew to their exposed neck. They noticed the sound too late, because senbons didn't make as much sound as kunais.

The senbons pierced their neck in a specific pressure point, immediately putting them in a false state of death. But because of the poison coated on the weapons, they quickly suffocated to death. They died not even knowing why, how or who killed them. The only thing they had in mind at that time being '_What is a squirrel doing in a forest like this?_'

And then, a shadow fell just beside the bodies, before going through their belonging, finding the Heaven scroll. The shadow, also quickly took every weapons they had, which disappeared in a puff of smoke. Then it quickly did hand seals before a stream of fire erupted from his mouth, burning the bodies to ash.

And as if it wasn't even there, the shadow disappeared again, having removed any traces of a fight in the area.

**With team 9**

Naruto was gone for a little over twenty minutes and Tenten and Lee were still waiting for him to come back. They were about to move toward the foreign team, when a shadow fell from a tree, just behind them. They whirled around, kunai in hands, before they sighed when they recognized the shadow as Naruto.

"What the hell? I told you to stop doing that!" yelled Tenten as silently as she could, not wanting to reveal their position to anyone.

Naruto just looked at her apathetically, before he removed a rather large scroll from his back.

"It was a _Heaven Scroll_ unfortunately."

His teammates seeing he wouldn't elaborate further just nodded with a shake of the head. "Ok, let's move to the next target then. Maybe next time we'll get lucky." Tenten said before jumping to a branch, quickly followed by her two companions.

Outside, Lee appeared calm while following his teammates, but inside he was in turmoil. He still couldn't wrap his mind on the way Naruto fought. '_Not even a sound or anything signaling that a battle was taking place._' Were his thoughts. He had always known that Naruto was dangerous, very much so, but until now, he hadn't realized just how much. He decided to let it go for now, focusing on finding an _earth scroll_ to pass this exam, first.

* * *

**Hokage tower**

* * *

Walking casually in the hallway of the hokage tower was a man easily recognizable. He was of average height and had the right part of his face wrapped in medical bandages. The left part of his face was unblemished, showing a hardened face. And the look in his eyes could freeze even a dead man. It was the look of someone who had witnessed everything possible, especially the dark side of humanity.

He also had his right arm encased in a cast, showing that he either had a fractured arm or an unusable one. All in all, he looked quite like an actor in a horror movie.

He was walking steadily toward his destination. Before long he stopped in front of a rather beautiful door, decorated with different jewels. Beside the door stood another office, where a woman was positioned. He looked at her and said without preamble.

"The hokage is expecting me."

The secretary looked from her documents, taking a short time to recognize the person and quickly replied.

"Of course Danzo — sama, you can go ahead."

Absentmindedly nodding, he knocked upon the door. Once he heard the permission to enter, he wasted no time in pushing it open, and moving inside, the door closing behind him.

Inside the office, Sarutobi was speaking with his advisors when he heard the knock at the door. Knowing who was behind it, considering they had an appointment, he allowed the visitor to come inside. Upon seeing the person in question, he couldn't help but be reminded of the reason why everything went to hell 7 years ago.

Homura and Koharu didn't miss the sad look on Sarutobi's face, but chose to stay silent, considering the meeting they were about to have.

"Greetings hokage—dono, Koharu—dono, Homura—dono. It has been a long time since we convened together." Begun Danzo.

"Indeed it has Danzo—dono. Indeed it has." Answered Koharu for the three.

"So what can I do for you? After all there must be a very important reason for the three of you to organize such a meeting!" continued Danzo opting to put any banter aside as he was a very busy man.

The three were silent at that, not having expected Danzo to go straight to the point. Usually, the latter would try to get around the topic to distract his opponents. Opponents because they all knew that any kind of conversation between them was the closest thing to a ninja battle.

They still regained their composure though, before Sarutobi took charge of the meeting.

"I'm sure you already know what this meeting is about."

Danzo sighed at that, having expected such a thing. "You still blame me for what happened between you and the Namikaze, don't you?"

"Are we wrong to do so?" answered Homura this time, the frustration clearly visible on his face.

"Need I remind you all that it was the three of you who used that _seal _on him in the first place?" said Danzo still as calm as ever. "Or maybe you forgot just how happy you were to have another Namikaze in your clutch, to the point of showing off in my face?"

At this the three stayed silent, contemplating his words. Oh they knew it was their fault for everything that happened, but they simply didn't want to admit their mistake. Especially when it had such aftereffect.

"Regardless of what happened in the past, we'd like for you to distance yourself from Namikaze—san." This time it was Sarutobi who talked, frostily gazing at Danzo, hoping to make him lose composure or at least his tight control over his emotions. But he was having no such luck.

"You seem to think that I am forcing him to do whatever it is you are thinking. Last time I remember, it was him who sought me out and not the other way around. I didn't try to approach him. He came to me. And for a simple reason." At this Danzo smirked a little, which caused those present in the room to narrow their eyes.

"And what possible reason would a child like him have to seek you out?" Sarutobi shot.

Danzo took his sweet time to answer this. He liked to play around with his former teammates. It made him feel in control of everything. Be in control. That is what he strived for. He wanted to be in control of everything. He didn't like surprise, one of the reason he created a spying network that almost rivaled Jiraiya's own. Seeing the restless look on the hokage's advisors and knowing they were at the limit of their patience, he finally answered.

"The reason he came to me is that Namikaze and I are alike!" Seeing the confused look in Sarutobi's eyes, he proceeded to elaborate.

"Namikaze, like myself, thinks that there cannot exist peace in this world. That no matter what, wars will always exist. The only thing we can do is push back the inevitable. He, like myself, saw the way your policy was weakening our village. To take action against this, he did the only thing sensible at the time, he sought after someone, in the higher echelons, who shared his outlook of the world. That is how he came to me. Not because of any manipulations I did, but because of your lack of an adequate policy." He finished looking at the three in front of him with a small smile.

The three were stunned to hear this. They had always wondered why Naruto, the son of the yondaime hokage, a man who strongly advocated against wars of any kind, was doing with a man like Danzo. A man well known for his love of wars and struggles. And to hear that it was simply because of the same outlook they had on how to run the village was mind blowing. The three looked at each other, having a silent conversation just with their eyes. If someone understood them, they would sum their conversation with a '_We'll convene about this later_'.

"Unlike you, there are others who don't like to go to war. War takes many lives, too many. And for what, a simple struggle between two countries or even two persons. Is it not because of this policy that our economy bloomed? You are talking about it as if this policy hasn't showed its worth." Countered Sarutobi, to which Danzo answered by…

"You mean, like the incident between the Hyuga clan and Kumo? Need I remind you just how you choose to sacrifice one of our own even though Kumo was clearly in the wrong?"

"At least, it allowed us to escape a war that we had little chance of winning in our state." Sarutobi fired back.

"Don't kid yourself. You very well know that if it had come to war, we'd have won, simply because their Jinchuuriki _Killer Bee_, wasn't yet as powerful as nowadays, same with their Kage. That is just a reason for you to justify your inactions. Speaking of which, remind me what were the consequences of your decisions again?" said Danzo with a sneer.

Seeing that none of the three were willing to answer, he answered his own question.

"We lost a good chunk of our customers, because they thought we were just all talk but no actions whatsoever. Because of this, several minor villages increased their attacks on us thinking our village was weak and trying to take us out. And as always who got us out of this situation? Root" said Danzo snarling at the end. Having lost any kind of control over his emotions.

Just like before, the three stayed silent. What could they said? After all, everything Danzo said was the truth. The consequences of his decision had been dire. The only reason they had recovered from this was because of what happened with Kusagakure. After that event, not only they got their customers back, but also no one wanted to mess with them anymore.

"Anyway, unlike you I have other things to do. So if you will excuse me now." Said Danzo rising from his chair, before walking toward the exit when Sarutobi said.

"If you are manipulating Namikaze-san, I will find out and make you pay dearly for this!"

Danzo hearing this didn't even looked back at Sarutobi but answered anyway.

"You are so focused on finding a way to take back Namikaze. Always thinking that I'm the one manipulating him. Did it ever occur to you that you might be wrong? Do you know which question I'm always asking myself?" He looked at Sarutobi from the corner of his eye and said in an ominous voice.

"Which one is manipulating the other?" he finished just before he closed the door, signaling his departure.

Inside the room, Sarutobi and his advisors were still in a meeting. Having regained their senses after everything Danzo told them, they were talking in hushed tone.

"You think it will be enough to distract him?" asked Homura.

"I do. He seemed quite pleased to hear that we're trying to retrieve the Namikaze. He'll be busy with this for a while, giving us ample time to move without his notice." Said Sarutobi smirking.

"That is good to hear. But still, what he said at the end have me thinking. I have a bad feeling about this." Said Koharu softly.

"You worry too much. Once everything is in place, he won't be able to do a thing. Now this meeting is adjourned." Finished Sarutobi with the advisors nodding.

* * *

**Forest of death**

* * *

A day had gone by since team 9 went inside the forest of death, and they still hadn't found the scroll they were looking for. They had encountered three other teams after the first one Naruto dispatched. But as if the gods were against them, none of those teams possessed an earth scroll. So now they had a total of five heaven scrolls. Having stopped to rest the night before, they were now moving or rather jumping from trees to trees, looking for another prey.

"I hope we find an earth scroll soon. I'm getting tired of this forest." Tenten grumbled while jumping over a branch.

"Tell me about it! It's like we're cursed or something." Lee fired back, before looking at Naruto to his left. "Nothing to say, hot shot?"

Naruto, deep in thoughts, was a little surprised by the question, but quickly steeled his gaze.

"Instead of questioning me, you should focus on the objective, overgrown eyebrow"

Tenten stifled a giggle at that, while Lee's eyebrow twitched. He opened his mouth to reply… when a violent gust of wind slammed on him, making him fly far away from his team. Recognizing the wind for what it was, Naruto and Tenten came to a stop, before looking around them, trying to spot the attacker.

A few seconds later, Naruto angled his face to look on his left, just in time to see a kunoichi appear on branch. Tenten seeing Naruto's reaction, followed suit, gazing at their would be attacker. Naruto immediately narrowed his eyes to slit when he recognized the stranger.

'_What does he want? He has no reason to be after Tenten, and he blew Lee away, so he must be after me!_' he adopted a defensive stance.

The kunoichi looked amused at the two, as she noticed the shifting in stance from Naruto, quickly followed by Tenten. '_Maybe they aren't called the strongest genin team of konoha for nothing._' she thought smiling creepily.

"Kukukuku … I have heard so much about you Namikaze—san. So much that I'm eager to see what you are made off." The way she phrased it seemed so… wrong to the genins.

Still, not one to be outdone, Naruto fired back. "I didn't know my fame had reached even a village like Kusagakure. I'm honored"

"No the pleasure is all mine, kukuku"

"Unfortunately, I would be more inclined to show you my might if you were to have an earth scroll miss … sorry I didn't catch your name, kunoichi—san?" continued Naruto.

The kunoichi smiled at that. '_Smartass_'.

"That's because I didn't gave you my name, but nice try"

"Whatever you say girl." He emphasized with a mock bow, all the while keeping an eye on his opponent.

On the sidelines, Tenten was looking at the exchange with barely concealed annoyance. '_How can someone be so bipolar? One moment he's cold toward anyone, and the next he's smiling with an obvious enemy_' she thought with a scowl.

Finally, Naruto looked seriously at the kunoichi, every hint of a smile having disappeared from his face.

"Now, why would a sannin like you seek me, a mere genin? And not just any sannin, but one rumored to be the strongest of the 3, Orochimaru the snake summoner?" he questioned the kunoichi.

Hearing this, Tenten gasped in surprise. She looked at the kunoichi once more to confirm it, just in time to see said kunoichi clapping and smiling appreciatively.

"Well done Namikaze-san, well done. I should've known you would recognize me. But I am a little curious, how did you manage such feat?"

The newly revealed Orochimaru said, before adding a little killing intent at the end, to prompt his targets to answer. He was satisfied to see Tenten shake under the KI in despair. When he looked at Naruto though, he was surprised to see him standing, clearly unaffected.

'_Oh, he can shrug this amount of KI already. Interesting!_' he thought.

Naruto, seeing the state Tenten was in, couldn't help but sigh in frustration. '_If I was alone I could easily flee from this place, but with her around, it will be more difficult._' He thought before raising his head just in time to see Orochimaru retrieve a kunai from his pouch. '_Damn_'.

Acting quickly, he took a kunai with a note attached to it, and threw it at Orochimaru. The latter was surprised to see Naruto throw his weapon at the same time he did, despite having gone for it first. Wasting no time, Naruto put his hand on Tenten's shoulder while holding a ram seal with his other hand.

'_Shunshin no jutsu_.' He thought just before he disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Meanwhile, the kunai he launched exploded in front of Orochimaru, destroying a good chunk of the tree he was standing on.

When the smoke was cleared, there was nothing left behind.

Naruto appeared a hundred meter away from his last location, and quickly went to work. He put his hand on Tenten's forehead, before sending healing chakra to her. The effect was immediate, as she quickly regained her senses back from the shock she endured when she felt orochimaru's KI. She quickly looked at Naruto alarmed

"Oh my god! Naruto we have to flee now. This is Orochimaru" she yelled hysterically prompting her teammate to slap her, hard enough to calm her down. He waited a few seconds before speaking.

"Calmed now? I know we have to escape. But you forgot he is a sannin. He will follow us easily, or rather you. Right now, I need to …" he said as calmly as possible under such conditions but was interrupted by Tenten's widening eyes.

"LOOK OUT!" she yelled, just in time for Naruto to grab her and jump high in the air, doing a back flip at the same time. While upside down, he saw a huge snake pass through where they stood earlier. But he also noticed Orochimaru hiding several meters away from their position.

Thinking quickly, he came up with a plan. Once he touched a branch, he set Tenten down, quickly taking a bunch of kunai with notes on them, and handing them to his teammate.

"Listen well Tenten. I want you to use those kunais to kill the snake summon. Aim for any weak parts like the eyes or the inside of its mouth. Understood?" Tenten slowly nodded, frightened by the situation but willing to survive.

Meanwhile, the snake twisted his body until he faced them again. Then he charged again at its targets, moving quickly between the trees and increasing the difficulty for Tenten to aim properly. But she wasn't known and nicknamed as _bullseye _for nothing. While she carefully took aim, Naruto closed his eye in concentration. '_He is moving._' he thought, feeling Orochimaru's chakra coming toward them.

"Now would be a good time Tenten!"

"Don't rush me. Try aiming for a snake moving like that and you will see just how hard it is!" she yelled in frustration.

Naruto sighed, knowing it was difficult. He didn't use those kunais himself because he knew that Tenten was way better than him when it came to handling weapons. It was then that he sensed Orochimaru a few meters away from them going through hand seals.

"TENTEN!" he yelled.

"Done!" she yelled in response, having finally locked onto her target's weak point: his eyes. She launched two of the kunais, which moved quickly towards their target, perfectly hitting the beast's eyes just before they exploded violently, forcing the snake to dispel, having taken too much damage.

At the same time, Naruto quickly went through 4 hand seals, before slamming his right foot on the ground violently.

'_Doton : Dust embrace_'. He muttered under his breath, too low for anyone to understand.

From the impact, a huge amount of dust was lifted, and rose to around 5 meters in height. It covered a good part of the area too. The jutsu was a creation of Naruto. It meant to replace the _kirigakure no jutsu_, as he didn't have a water affinity and it would take too much chakra due to perform it.

Because of the dust, Orochimaru was forced to stop his charge, not wanting to be taken off guard. He immediately went through hand seals and summoned a violent gust of wind to repel the dust, but was stunned to find that it did nothing more than push it a little. '_It's like the kirigakure no jutsu. That means I won't remove it easily. A smart move, as I cannot seem to sense his chakra. But he forgot one crucial detail for his plan_' he thought smirking.

For his part, Naruto quickly handed Tenten a mask, while he put another one himself. Those masks were prepared specifically for this jutsu. Because of the dust, it was difficult to breath, and even dangerous for the health. So he designed a mask that worked like anbu's ones. One of its ability was to filter the air.

'_Now, how can I escape with Tenten? Shunshin is out of question because it leaves too big a trail for someone as skilled as Orochimaru. I could use my special jutsu that allow me to melt with the earth, but I never tried to use it with someone in tow. What about a modified Shunshin?_' he thought furiously.

He was interrupted though, when he sensed Orochimaru charging toward their exact position, alarming he. '_How does he know where I am? I'm sure he cannot sense my chakra, and I didn't make any sound. He cannot follow me by smell because of the dust, so how?_'

He tapped Tenten shoulder urging her to move. She quickly executed herself and took off in a random direction, with Naruto not far behind. '_That's it! He must be following us because of Tenten's chakra. Damn seem like I don't have a choice._'

He quickly stopped Tenten who looked at him with a questioning look. Then he did 7 hand seals very quickly. _Tsuchi bunshin_. He muttered, and a clone took shape on his left. The clone wasted no time in grabbing Tenten's hand and moving through one-handed seals quickly. A dozen or so seals later, he finished with a one handed ram seal and muttered.

"_Futon : Fuujin_**_"_**

Almost immediately after, the clone's and Tenten's body were transformed in wind, before they disappeared, leaving no trail of chakra behind, as it was completely different from Shunshin. Instead of turning into chakra, which was why everyone could sense someone using Shunshin, the user turned every parts of his body into the element wind. He thought of this jutsu just now and was happy that it worked.

Meanwhile, Orochimaru who was moving in the dust by locking on Tenten's chakra was stunned to feel it suddenly vanish. '_What happened? How could she disappear so suddenly?_' he thought frustrated.

On the other hands, Naruto finally smiled in glee. '_Now that she's not here anymore, I can finally fight the way I like. First thing first, I must stop this dust. It's consuming my chakra way too fast._' He thought while slowly sinking into the ground, his body gradually transforming into earth.

This was currently his most dangerous jutsu, one he created himself. Like the technique _Fuujin_ he just created, it was based on a single principle. Normally when ninjas used jutsu, they manipulated chakra outside the body to affect the nature around them. But thanks to his bunsekigan, he was able to design specific one-handed seals that manipulated the chakra inside the user's body. It was very dangerous, so he thoroughly tested each jutsu he created by using this principle. He made an exception earlier, because of the situation they were in.

Anyway, this particular jutsu allowed him to turn his body into earth, thus allowing him to fuse with every physical material, and move around very quickly. It had the side effect of completely erasing his existence, as he became nothing more than a part of the nature.

Just before he was completely swallowed by the ground, two _Tsuchi bunshin_ formed and then moved toward their target. While the original stayed inside the earth observing calmly the whole fight in a safe place. '_Now let me see your secrets, snake sannin_'.

A few meters away from Naruto, Orochimaru was looking for his target in frustration, as he couldn't sense Naruto at all. '_Kabuto wasn't kidding when he said the boy was a demon in stealth. To think that a sannin wouldn't even sense a mere genin._' He was quickly losing his patience as time went by.

Suddenly he sensed a barrage of flying weapons coming toward his position, fast. He moved to the side, escaping the senbons he saw pass by him. Another barrage came from behind this time, so he quickly jumped to a branch to take higher ground.

BOOM!

The branch he jumped on exploded, severely damaging him, as he never noticed the exploding note on it, thanks to the reduced visibility. Once the smoke was lifted, only mud was left behind, indicating that Orochimaru was only a clone.

One of Naruto's clones, standing upside down on a branch, sighed. He had expected such thing anyway, so he looked for the real Orochimaru, only having to stop feeding chakra to his feet to fall on the ground. Just in time to escape a flamethrower that incinerated the tree he was previously standing on.

But it did allow him to find his target position, and quickly moved toward his prey. It wasn't long before he came to the position, only to stop just before an exploding note detonated almost taking him out too. '_Shit, that was too close for comfort_' He quickly hid himself again.

Orochimaru on the other hand, moved quickly through branches, having come to the conclusion that staying put would be dangerous for his health. He came to a halt when he noticed something wrong with his surrounding. 'KAI' he yelled, just in time to dodge a senbon that flew by his neck.

'_Damn, I didn't even notice he put me in a genjutsu. He almost had me there._' he thought before throwing shurikens toward the clone he located while moving through hand seals.

"_Shuriken kage bunshin_." He muttered, just before the shurikens transformed in a black rain of weapons.

It was then that he heard something that sounded like **_Doton : earth's dome_**. He saw the way the earth moved to form a dome of solid earth, protecting the clone from the rain of shurikens. Not deterred, he went through hand seals again before muttering **_Katon : Karyu Endan_**. Before releasing a huge stream of fire on the dome, heating it, before it disintegrated, incinerating anything inside.

Unfortunately, he was forced to stop the jutsu when another Naruto appeared behind him and slammed several times, his palms on his torso. He was propelled toward a tree, and slammed on it. And like before, it turned into mud. The clone seeing this, said out loud.

"Shit! I am dead!"

"Indeed" said a voice behind him, before he was violently punched in the face. But Orochimaru was surprised when the Naruto turned in mud also. '_Mud clone too?_' he thought just before he went through several hand seals. '_I think I have played long enough._'

"**_Suiton : Suiryuudan no jutsu_**" The moment he uttered those words, water surged from the ground, before taking the shape of a huge water dragon and moving through all the dust, rendering it heavier, before it felt on the ground, thus ending Naruto's jutsu.

Naruto, seeing this, appeared in front of Orochimaru and sighed in exasperation. _'At least, he is allowing me to study him thoroughly, without even taking notice of it._' he thought smirking at the end.

Orochimaru, seeing the smirk, went through some hand seals quickly, before slamming his palms on the ground yelling.

"**_Kuchiyose No Jutsu"_**

A giant puff of smoke covered him entirely, masking him from Naruto. The latter tensed after recognizing the jutsu '_a summoning jutsu Tch! I gambled on the fact that he wouldn't use high costing jutsu considering he could easily be sensed by anbu because of this._' he thought more surprised than worried.

When the smoke was lifted, Orochimaru was standing on a rather large snake with huge scales that appeared to be very strong. He looked at his target licking his lips in glee "Show me Namikaze, show me what your blood is capable of." Yelled Orochimaru insanely before giving the signal for his snake to charge his target.

The snake obeyed quickly by sliding towards Naruto, like a predator after his prey. Unfortunately for it, in this case, no one could safely say who was the predator and who was the prey.

Naruto not wanting to waste energy dodging the snake quickly, slammed a smoke bomb on the ground hiding him. When the smoke was cleared, he was gone completely. Much to the ire of the snake sannin, who was looking everywhere for him. It was only thanks to his many years of experience and hard gained reflex that he was able to dodge a rain of senbons that slammed on the scales of the snake, but fortunately, didn't affect it.

Using the direction in which the weapons came from, he looked up, just in time to see Naruto about 50 meter in the sky, going through hand seals at an unprecedented speed even for him.

Naruto finished his hand seals for a jutsu he just thought, before extending his right palm in front of him, directed at Orochimaru and his snake. He whispered to himself "**_Futon : Buddha's Palm_**". And just like that, the pressure of the air above his target multiplied tenfold and slammed on Orochimaru and his snake with such force that it left a giant handprint on the ground.

The snake was completely obliterated and dispelled itself, while at the last second, Orochimaru pulled a Kawarimi, escaping the attack, but not without suffering a little from the sudden change in pressure.

'_What the fuck was that? I've never seen such jutsu before. Kukukuku you interest me even more Namikaze Naruto._'thought the traitor sannin before looking at the still airborne Naruto.

Not wasting anytime, he launched 3 kunais at him, after enhancing them with wind chakra. But he was disappointed when instead of hitting their target, Naruto dodged them easily by maneuvering in mid air using wind manipulation. He couldn't help but be in awe at what a genin was capable of, but quickly got back to the matter at hand, and used a burst of speed to jump in the sky and appear above Naruto who had his back on him. '_Perfect kukukuku_'

Everyone looking at the sight would have automatically assumed that it was the end for the boy as he couldn't see the incoming Orochimaru, but they wouldn't take into account the fact that Naruto improved his tsuchi bunshin so much that now, he could easily share his senses — sight, hearing and the likes — with his clones. So it wasn't surprising when the free falling Naruto saw Orochimaru above him, thanks to the sight of the real naruto still fused with the ground and watching the fight.

So when Orochimaru was about to drop kick him to the ground, he rotated on himself so fast that an after image of the rotation was still visible. That was the application of the _Piercing Dragon_ style. Instead of Orochimaru slamming his kick on naruto, the later kicked the offending leg to the side, before rotating again and then slamming the same leg straight in orochimaru's face.

He wasn't surprised when Orochimaru disappeared in the form of crumbling dirt. '_Tsuchi bunshin !_' he thought before he finally touched ground. '_I think I learned enough about him, and all those techniques are taking a toll on the original. Note to myself : find a way to increase my reserves quickly._'

At the same time, another Orochimaru appeared behind him and pierced him through his gut.

"Ghuuhh …" naruto coughed violently while looking at Orochimaru who was smirking at him.

"Kukukuku Naruto—kun, you are strong indeed, for someone your age. But after seeing this, I just simply cannot allow you to live and reach the level of your late father."

"If only you had accepted my offer." finished Orochimaru removing his sword from naruto's gut quite roughly. He was surprised though when naruto didn't even flinch and looked at him in the eyes.

"Orochimaru of the sannin. I had assumed that someone of your standing would be able to see through the thin veil of reality. But it seems that I overestimated you." He said still coughing, while Orochimaru snarled.

"You said that, yet you're the one who is dying." The smugness in his tone was missed by Naruto.

To which naruto just smirked. "Don't you see it? Since the beginning of this fight I knew that I couldn't beat you. So I did the next best thing."

Orochimaru leaned in anticipation, and a bit unnerved. "I goaded you into revealing more about you and your fighting style to me. While, of me, you learned nothing. After all, what would you learn after fighting only clones ?" Finished naruto before crumbling in dust, completely stunning the sannin to silence.

He had never felt so humiliated before now. The last time was when he tried to steal Itachi's body, only to be defeated rather easily by the Uchiha prodigy. But this took the cake. He just noticed right now that he never fought against the real naruto, not even once. And what stunned him the most was that he came close to death several time while just fighting clones. Granted in a fair fight, he knew that he could easily defeat naruto, but from the way he saw naruto fight, a fair fight didn't exist in his vocabulary. So that was how the snake sannin, one of the most powerful ninja in the world was thoroughly shocked and humiliated by a mere genin.

Not very far, merged with a tree, naruto observed the sannin sink into the ground with his special _Shunshin _jutsu. He sighed before quickly using his newly created jutsu _Fuujin_ to convert his whole body into air molecule, to move where his clone took Tenten. All the while smiling at all the information he gained from his fight with the sannin. 'I_ can't wait to use this for my training._' he thought smiling, before he disappeared in a gust of wind, leaving behind, a devastated forest.

* * *

**Author's Note**:

I hope you liked it. Tell me what you think. Now I will work on my other story and hopefully I will update it tomorrow.

Next time everybody.


	3. Sleeping Dragon

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto or Kekkaishi. It is the propriety of Kishimoto and ? respectively.

I found some errors while reading it again, and corrected most of them.

Hello everyone. It has been a very long time since I updated. This was caused by many problems I faced. But I am sure you aren't there to read about my life. So I will just give you the third chapter of my story Naruto the true Ninja. It is longer than usual but I wanted to stop at a specific spot, and I am sure you will notice how rushed I was at the end.

Anyway. to answer some reviews.

To **matrice** : Indeed, in this fic, naruto won't fight against those way out of his league. Of course that just means he will try to escape every time he know that he cannot win. I like to think of this as how a true ninja should act. Fight when you are sure you can win, and retreat once you are way out of your league.

To **malixe2**: I too have been looking for a cross between naruto and kekkaishi because I found the kekkai ability pretty amazing. I had even proposed this as a challenge, but as no one took it, I took upon myself to write it down. Especially with the amount of twists my brain is thinking about.

To everyone, you will notice that I don't write the scene that happened in the manga. that is because I find it redundant. I think that no one want to read something a thousand times. So when you see a scene that is almost the same as in the original manga, that means there is something I want you to notice in it, that will be used later on in the plot. So be careful on what you read.

Edited: 05/12/2013

* * *

**_Chapter 3: Sleeping dragon_**

* * *

Tenten sat alone on the treetop, deep in thought. She was contemplating everything that happened since she became a genin. She had always thought of herself as a decent person. She had a few friends in the civilian side of the village. Admittedly a lot more than the friends she had with the ninja counterpart. But understandable as she mostly grew among civilian, at the orphanage. Very quickly, she drifted apart with some of them, as she went to the ninja academy, unlike them. As time went on, she had fewer topics to speak about with them. Again, she wasn't at fault, as she was just trying to reach her dream, no matter how far away it appeared to be, even to this day.

At the academy, she quickly figured that she'd have a lot of trouble when it came to learning ninjutsu. Not that she was unable to learn them. No, the issue stemmed from the fact that those jutsus were thoroughly protected, either being declared clan secret or simply classified and only accessible by the higher nins. In others word, if she wanted access to those jutsus, she'd need to advance in rank. Something rather ironic, when it's known that to rise up the ranks, knowledge of at least some of those jutsus was needed.

Coming back to the matter at hands, knowing this problem, she was forced to specialize in something that was easily accessible by anyone, in others words, taijutsu or weapons. She quickly chose weapons because she discovered she had a very impressive talent and it wasn't the ease with which she could handle most of those weapons. It was something more subtle than that.

This ability gave her the nickname of _bullet eyes_. No matter how bad the weather was, no matter how far away she was, if she had the strength to do it, she could hit a target wherever she wanted.

That was her true ability. She never missed a target, even a moving one, of course depending on the speed at which the target was moving. By training, she increased her skill to the point of being able to hit even a jounin ninja while he's moving. That was her forte in the team. Lee was the taijutsu specialist, Naruto the team leader able to do any task with relatively ease and her, the support of the team, fighting at long range, and helping any of them, when deemed necessary.

She had always prided herself of her ability to get through almost any situation. She thought she was strong. Granted against a full-fledged jounin she wouldn't stand a chance, she could at least stall him long enough for the reinforcement to arrive. But what happened yesterday completely trashed her entire world. Suddenly, she became aware of just how weak she really was against the monsters of this world.

Monsters!

That is the way she called those who reached a level higher than jounin. Those levels were, in an ascending order, _anbu captain, sannin, kage and S-ranked ninja. _The last three being approximately at the same level. Even a ninja at the level of an anbu captain could very well take on a team of 4 jounins and win.

Not even a day had gone since the wakeup call she received from Orochimaru. She couldn't recall a single time where she had felt completely and utterly crushed. Only thinking about that event, a chill went down her spine. The apparent ease with which the Sannin handled them or rather her — she quickly corrected herself — was shocking to say the least. If she was truthful about the whole event, she knew she hadn't been much of a help in the confrontation, except maybe killing the huge snake that Orochimaru summoned.

She clenched her fists in frustration. '_Almost two years since I became a genin, and I couldn't even do something against that monster!_' She slammed her fist against the branch beside her. '_What was I doing since becoming genin?_'

It was then that she reached the only solution to her problem. A solution she came up with a long time ago, but didn't have the courage to act upon it. The cause being that it required one crucial point.

It required of her to swallow her pride.

Oh it wasn't the kind of pride that could be found in an Uchiha, or even a very experienced ninja, the like of an S-rank ninja. No, it was nothing of the like. Instead it was about her achievement. She had reached this level without any outside help, except of course the academy teacher help like everybody. That made her very proud of herself, and she wasn't ready to let go of it just yet. Or rather she wasn't ready at the time, because, now, she reached the conclusion that if she wanted to progress further, she needed outside help.

Now came the hard part, who to turn to for help? The first thing that came to her mind was to ask her jounin sensei. But that was quickly dismissed as she knew that not only Gai was a lot less forthcoming when it came to her, unlike with Rock Lee. But his speciality lays in a branch of the ninja arts that she wasn't very proficient in, and didn't even want to increase her proficiency in.

Another solution that came to her mind was to get a recommendation from her sensei to get help from other jounins. But the problem was that, like many other ninjas, these jounins would be less inclined to help, as she wasn't their charge. Secrecy was also one of the reasons behind this. So this was a no-no solution.

That let her with only one solution. Something she didn't really like. But at this time, it was her only way out.

It was then that she turned her head to look at the ground. She then saw her teammate, Naruto, sitting against a tree, writing something on a very strange scroll.

'_Ok girl, it's now or never._' she thought before jumping to the ground, in Naruto's direction.

Naruto had been sitting there for a long time now. He had reached his teammate position a few minutes after departing from the area where he fought against the traitorous sannin. Once he found her, the two decided to rest for the night, as he was very tired from his fight. So he put around the area, a few batch of detection seals of his own design. They only served to warn him of any breach by an outsider.

The next morning, he woke up early as always, and took a little breakfast that he retrieved from his storage scroll. It wasn't long before Tenten woke up too, and after taking her breakfast, she went up to the treetop doing whatever she wanted, as they still had a lot of time before they would begin their search of their missing teammate.

He himself was doing his research or rather continuing his research. It wasn't every day that he had the time to work on it, as he was always busy with something to do. That's why he always had on himself, his special scroll, upon which he worked. The strange scroll looked plain. Neither too long nor too wide. But the amount of work woven upon it was tremendous to say the least.

It was one of the greatest creations of the Namikaze clan. It wasn't a combat technique or anything the like. Instead it was nothing more than a support device for a sealing practitioner. To understand just how important this was, you'd need to understand why few ninjas today practice the sealing art, with even less, reaching mastery.

The sealing art, although extremely useful for those who know how to use it, is the most unpredictable and dangerous art currently existing. It consists in writing in associating different kind of runes, thus forming scripts and arrays of them. Each rune has a meaning and a set of rules, which determining the relationship between each other.

The first step in learning sealing is to learn the meaning of every rune. This step takes a lot of time and determination to master. Following this step is the learning of the relationship between the runes, and the effect they produce. The third step consists in learning from existing seals. And finally the last step is all about creating your own seals.

Very few ninjas reaches the second step. And those who do, usually give up upon starting the third step. They are the ones who duplicate the existing seals and nothing more. The last level, which is usually mixed up with sealmaster, is reached by about five persons for each generation.

But coming back to the matter at hands, the problem wasn't the lack of people reaching the last level, rather the dangers that came with the creation of a seal. It's so easy to miss something during the creating process after all, or even misunderstand the effect of a seal. Adding the fact a seal can very well reduce a person's soul to dust, it becomes easy to understand just why no one wanted to mess with the art.

This, all the more, increases the value of the Namikaze's creation, for the simple reason that this scroll almost completely nullify the risks taken when creating a seal.

This supposed scroll is covered with so many seals that few can understand half of it. The seals works like an automatic corrector. Every time a wrong or dangerous seal is wrote by the user on the scroll, said seal is highlighted, specifically the wrong part of the seal. Also to keep the corrector updated, whenever someone discover a mistake not included in the corrector, he adds it to the corrector matrix.

Those scrolls could only be used by a Namikaze, and were duplicated by another seal in the Namikaze's hidden house. Thanks to it, the clan had been able to quickly advance in the art. An advantage they jealously kept for themselves.

Coming back to the present, Naruto was using one of these scrolls to create a new sealing array. Something he was working on, ever since he became a genin. Indeed, the seal was that complex. But given that the benefits of such seal, if finished, would be tremendous, he considered the time passed on it as worth spending.

The seal is one that'll be applied on the user body. Its goal is two folds. First is the complete control of the opening and closing of the user's tenketsus, with a sub-goal of completely encasing the chakra circulatory system with a sealing array that would strengthen it thoroughly. There were others side effects of the strengthening part, but that was for another day.

The second goal of the seal was also very important and could prove very useful later on. If it worked as expected, the user would be able to not only absorb ambient energy, transforming it in neutral chakra, but would also be able to absorb the energy emitted by elemental jutsus, to a lesser extent.

He had already completed the second part of the seal namely the absorbing part. But he still had trouble with the first part. The reason was that the tenketsus on a human's body weren't in a fixed position. It constantly changed as the body grew, or even developed from the chakra training. So if he applied the seal on himself, now, in a few years, months even, it'd stop working. So he had to find a way to make the seal move in perfect symbiosis with the tenketsus movements. Something he deemed impossible until now.

During his fight with the snake Sannin, he discovered something incredible on said Sannin's body. That something was the mutating ability possessed by the latter. The ability being displayed whenever Orochimaru stretched his body either to lengthen his arm or even to slither around any attacks. Very quickly he noticed that the tenketsus and other important parts of the body were displaced in perfect coordination.

He later found out that it was in fact a jutsu that allowed him to do so. Wasting no time at all, he quickly learned the technique, after careful observation with his _bunsekigan_. After that it just became a matter of converting the jutsu into a sealing matrix, as it was indeed possible to convert almost any jutsus in a seal matrix.

That's what he was writing now on the scroll, to make it work perfectly. Once he finished, he quickly activated the correcting part of the scroll, which displayed no errors from the matrix. This made him smile, an action that seemed so foreign on his face. Of course, he'd have to test it on someone else before applying it on him. After all, there could be an error that the _corrector_ wasn't aware of yet. Still he was happy knowing that if there was any errors, it'd rather be something other than the way in which he achieved this result, in others words, a writing error. So it would be easier to correct.

His teammate Tenten, chose that exact time to land on the ground in front of him, a serious expression on her face. Carefully schooling his features, Naruto looked at her expectantly.

Once Tenten landed on her feet, she looked up toward Naruto with the most serious expression she could manage. She was so focused on looking professional that she completely missed the fleeting smile that adorned Naruto's face.

"Naruto …" she began hesitantly, despite her resolve. Taking a deep breath, she gathered her courage and continued. "… I've been thinking on everything that happened ever since we became genin… And I've found myself lacking."

She paused to give Naruto the time to digest everything she said. "Obviously I've known for a while now that I haven't improved as much as in my earlier days, but I didn't want to admit it. But now after our last fight with Orochimaru, I know that I can't afford not to anymore."

All along, Naruto just kept quiet and observed her.

Another deep breath and she went on. "After thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that you were the only one that could help me" she finally said, looking at Naruto directly in the eyes. She was a little shaken as during all of her speech, Naruto didn't react at all. It looked like everything she said wasn't registered by her teammate. And that frustrated her a little. '_Can't you show even a shred of emotion? Damn it!_'.

She was surprised to hear a sound coming from Naruto's mouth finally. "Two questions: why should I help you and how would I be able to do so?" questioned Naruto calmly. No emotions were discernible in his speech, so Tenten couldn't guess what he was thinking.

"I can't give you a satisfying answer when it comes to why you should help me, because, frankly, it's your call. But know that, should you help me, I'll be extremely grateful, and will do my best to repay you."

"Concerning the way you could help me, that's very simple. I know that I am not the taijutsu type, or even the medical type. But you could help me in many others departments, such as ninjutsu, genjutsu, or anything you deem OK to teach me."

She said with apprehension, fearing his reaction. Nonetheless she held hope that Naruto would find it in himself to help her. And if he did it, she really would do her best to repay him.

Naruto, for his part, was thinking over the words of his teammate and couldn't help but smile a little in his mind. Of course, on the outside, he was still as stoical as ever. What made him smile was the fact that he had always thought of Tenten as a kunoichi with potential and that she didn't exploit it to the maximum of its capacity. After all, it wasn't every day you found someone that could always hit her target in bullet eyes, every time she tried.

The only thing that kept him from helping her was her pride. Oh he had noticed her pride very quickly, not that she hid it. This emotion was a bother to him. Another problem was her high fanaticism when it comes to anything related to the Slug Sannin. He couldn't and would never help someone that thought highly of Tsunade. His reasoning was his own and he would never disclose it to anyone. '_Not yet anyway_' he thought.

Coming to a decision, he focused again on Tenten before opening his mouth. "I'll think about it." Before rising from his position on the ground, as it was time for them to depart from this place and look for their missing teammate. Tenten hearing this was a little disappointed, but her mood quickly rose up when she heard Naruto's parting word. "But you will need to show me just how serious you are about it".

* * *

**With team 7**

* * *

Team 7 was made of 3 members not including their sensei. They were Sakura Haruno, Sai and Sasuke Uchiha. Each member was very important to the team in their own rights. Not that their worth was easily discernible at first sight.

First was Sai. Nothing worth mentioning unless you took a closer look. The boy was the focus of many strange events. One of them was the fact that he was always present whenever his teammate, the Uchiha, was in trouble. If he wasn't a guy and didn't have any inclination for males, many would assume that he was stalking the Uchiha. Another strange thing about him was the fact that he didn't go the academy like the other genins. He just appeared at the genin exams, having been sponsored by an unknown entity, for a spot in the graduating members.

But the strangest and creepiest thing about him, was without a doubt … his smile.

If there was one thing everyone knew about him, it was the perpetual smile that adorned on his face. No one ever saw him without said creepy smile plastered on his face. It went to a point where many wouldn't recognize him without him having that smile.

Then there is Haruno Sakura, the only girl of the group. Now some would assume that she would be given a hard time by the other members of her team as she was the only girl. But they would be far from the truth. The truth of the matter was that she was the self-assumed vice-captain of the team, with Sasuke as captain. Going by her words, you would reach the only conclusion available.

She was a _fan-girl_.

Indeed, if you were looking for her in the village, you just needed to find Sasuke, and you will be certain that she is close by. She was always chasing after him, praising him at every opportunity she got, even when the latter wasn't deserving of any praise. Like her teammate Sai, she had a distinctive feature about her.

Her hairs were pink.

Indeed, very strange in the shinobi world were almost everyone, including the civilians, did everything they could to appear unnoticeable. But, apparently, it was a feature present in every Haruno. No one knew the reason behind it. After all, you must have angered the wrong person to get cursed like that. That was the thought of many.

And finally the last member of the team, Uchiha Sasuke, last 'loyal' Uchiha of Konoha, last _possible_ wielder of their kekkei genkai, the _sharingan_ and many other such titles. If you were to ask a civilian who Sasuke was, the first thing they would say was something among the lines of '_he is the greatest genius to have ever come from Konoha_'. But if you were to ask a ninja, they would ask you in return and with a straight face '_are you talking about that pseudo genius?_'

You didn't need to be a genius to understand that Sasuke was very much liked by the civilian part of the village, but when it comes to the ninja part, he was nothing more than another genin hopeful with only his ego to boast.

Oh he was gifted, that was for sure. After all, he didn't become the rookie of his year by being a weakling. But he was nothing compared to the genius that Konoha was famous for.

But I digress. At the moment, team 7 was in a precarious situation. During the beginning of the forest of death part of the exam, they met with none other than Orochimaru, the snake Sannin in person. A man, if you could even call him that anymore, that very few even among the jounin wanted to meet. It was a wonder how they had survived such encounter. Back to the matter at hands, among the team, the only one still standing was Sakura. In fact, the other two were unconscious.

She was standing in front of a cave she found. Inside the cave, lying on the ground were her two teammates Sasuke and Sai. Sasuke was unconscious ever since the snake freak as she called him, bite him on the neck. Sai on the other hand lost consciousness after being manhandled by Orochimaru, when he tried to defend his teammates.

She has been forced to stay awake all night, watching after her teammates, just in case another team tried to take them out when they were knocked out. That is why she was trying desperately not to close her eyes. The only thing that slightly comforted her was the devious trap she put around her position, in hope of either alerting her of an intruder or taking said intruder out, thus escaping a confrontation she wasn't ready to partake in at the moment.

Unfortunately for her, she forgot that in the shinobi's world, nothing ever goes as planned. And every bad things that can happen, _will_ happen, as Murphy once said.

Not far from sakura's position, crouched behind a bush, was a team from Oto no kuni, the newly created shinobi village of the sound. The team was composed of two guys and one girl. One of the male had medical bandages wrapping most of his face, only revealing his left eye. He also wore a strange poncho and a snake pattern scarf around his neck. What was interesting about him was the large amplifier on his arm.

The girl in the team also had a snake pattern scarf around her neck, with the sound headband proudly displayed on her forehead. She had long black hairs that fell on her shoulders. The last male too had the same scarf and the same headband on his forehead; on the other hand he had some protections on each of his cheeks that seemed to cling on his face.

They were talking in hushed tones, as to not disclose their position.

"Does any of you see the target anywhere?" the only female asked to her companions who seemed to be searching for something.

"No. Not yet anyway. But considering that girl is teammate with our target, he is bound to be somewhere close" answered the one with the amplifier.

"What about the cave the girl seems to be protecting? Maybe the missing members of her team are inside." The last male said.

"Yeah, they must be inside of it. But why would she keep guard only by herself, the whole night?"

"Maybe the others two aren't in the best shape. A good thing for us. We should take advantage of this." The girl said with a smirk on her face.

The others two nodded, and were about to move, when the one with the amplifier raised his arm, halting them. The other two wondering what was going on, just observed their teammate who seemed to be rummaging inside his backpack. A few moments later, he removed his hand from the pack, with a brown rabbit. And then he did a shocking thing.

He attached an explosive tag on the back of the rabbit, in a way that completely hid it from sight. The others couldn't help but wince a little for the 'poor' rabbit.

"Don't you think it's a little too much Dosu?"

"Everything dies one way or another. The only thing that differs is the time and manner in which they die. So why should I feel bad about this? Instead, the rabbit should thank me for saving him from a tiring life" the newly revealed Dosu said with complete apathy.

Surprisingly, none of his teammates reacted. Showing that either they were already used of this Dosu, or they simply didn't care one bit.

Dosu ushered the rabbit towards the lone girl sitting in front of the cave. Said girl was looking around with half opened eyes. A result of her keeping guard the whole night. Fortunately, she was still awake enough to notice the innocent looking rabbit closing on her.

'Oh no! If it keeps going in that direction, it will reveal my trap.' She quickly took a kunai from her pouch, and sends it at the animal. The weapon slammed just in front of said rabbit, scaring him enough to make him change direction, and return to his captors.

In the bush, the members of the Oto team were frowning at what happened.

"Do you think she noticed the tag?" The girl looked at Dosu.

"No I don't think so. She must have done this for another reason"

And the simple action of scaring a rabbit, made them look more closely around the area the rabbit was before. It wasn't long before they found the reason behind sakura's action.

"There is a trap there. She must have scared the rabbit away, to stop it from revealing the trap she lays there. Smart girl, she is."

"Anyway, I think we have wasted enough time now. What do you say; we make a frontal attack, Zaku, Kin?" Dosu said while moving towards their target, followed closely by his teammates.

Sakura, who was a little alert now since the episode with the rabbit, immediately noticed the Oto team, and couldn't help but curse the heaven for her bad luck. '_Great, that's the team that tried to kill Kabuto at the written exams._' She thought, focusing on them and their every moves.

Zaku, being the impatient one among the others two, was quick to move towards Sakura, taking care of dodging the trap laid on the ground. All the while, smirking like a predator about to gut his prey. Unfortunately, he shouldn't have underestimated her, as just after having crossed the trap, he activated another one by putting his foot on a hidden thread. The thread, which was very sensitive and buried in the ground, was cut suddenly, causing a chain like reaction with the end result being a huge pointed wood moving toward the shell shocked Zaku.

Zaku's eyes widened when he saw the incoming wooden weapon. '_Shit, I won't move in time._' He thought with bulged eyes. The wood kept coming closer and closer, until it was just in front of him, causing him to close his eyes waiting for the blow.

He waited and waited, but felt nothing, prompting him to open his eyes in confusion. And what he saw surprised him. Because, standing in front of him, was his teammate Dosu, with his right arm outstretched, as if he just punched something. Which wasn't far from the truth because in front of him, on the ground, was the remains of the wood that came close to impale him.

"You should be more cautious Zaku. How many time do I have to tell you that" A frustrated looking Dosu turned to Zaku after saying that. Zaku, having regained his calm, couldn't help but voice his displeasure.

"How the hell was I supposed to know that the bitch laid another trap?"

"Maybe by simply removing your head from your ass?" smartly remarked Kin, much to Zaku's displeasure.

During their little banter, Sakura was observing them growing alarmed. '_If only the other one hadn't reacted quickly and destroyed the wood, I would have a better chance than now. I am so screwed._' She thought desperately.

Dosu, having enough of the insults his two others teammates exchanged, turned to look at Sakura. Because of the bandages hiding most of his features, it was almost impossible to read his facial expressions. He opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by Sakura.

"What do you want?"

He looked at the girl, weighting the value of answering her, but was again interrupted much to his growing ire.

"Little girl, just give us your teammate the Uchiha, and we will leave you alone."

"And pray tell me what you will be doing to him if I hand him over?"

"We will of course relieve you of the burden he must be to you"

Sakura couldn't help the snort that escaped her mouth after hearing what Zaku said. The worst was that even his own teammates were slapping their hand on their forehead at his apparent stupidity. Or was it arrogance? She didn't know, and couldn't find it in herself to care one bit.

"Let me make this clear. You want me to hand over Sasuke-kun, my teammate, so that you can _relieve_ me of my supposed burden? Even a mentally retarded one wouldn't fall for such obvious trick."

While saying this, she was mentally preparing herself for the battle to come, as it was obvious that they wouldn't let her go just like that. And she was right as Kin took what looked like a handful of senbons from her pouch, while glaring at her.

"It is obvious that she won't hand him to us. So we'll just have to take him over her dead body." She said laughing at her maniacally.

As if to carry out her threat, she quickly launched a handful of the senbons at sakura, surprising the latter by the sudden attack. She did her best to dodge, by weaving around them.

'_Something isn't right._' She thought while ducking another wave of senbons. '_Why is it so easy to dodge them? Normally senbons are the hardest weapons to dodge because of their size._'

Narrowing her eyes, she quickly looked at the senbons scattered around her, but couldn't find anything wrong with them. So she looked back at her attackers, only to find zaku with his hands extended towards her.

"_Zankuha_"

Sakura had little time to jump to the sky to escape the supersonic blast of what could only be described as air. With her high position, she was able to look at her earlier position on the ground, in a bird like view. And what she saw made her widen her eyes in surprise. Because the senbons scattered on the ground formed a perfect pentagon like shape. Before she had a chance to understand the pattern's meaning, she felt her whole body go numb, and the landscape changed from a peaceful forest to a sandy desert with scattered bones everywhere.

'_Genjutsu_'

She thought at last before succumbing completely to it. Much to her attackers' joy.

"What a waste" kin scoffed with an air of smugness. "She couldn't even tell that something was wrong with the way I launched my weapons. Truly Konoha ninjas are grossly overestimated."

Her teammates couldn't help but agree with her. Not wanting to waste any more time, she walked towards her target until she was standing above her. She took a kunai from her pouch, and knelt down to finish her target when her instincts screamed at her to flee. Knowing that her instincts were rarely wrong she tried to jump backward, but it was already too late.

**A moment earlier**

After Sakura fell under the genjutsu, she found herself in a desert landscape, with sands everywhere and bones scattered around.

"This must be the illusion generated by the genjutsu she put me under."

Knowing she had but a few moment before her attackers would try to take her out while she was stuck in this world, she closed her eyes, concentrating on her chakra system. It wasn't long before she noticed the foreign chakra manipulating her own.

Indeed, genjutsu was a very subtle art that once mastered could be extremely deadly. To use genjutsu, you had to find a way to invade your target chakra system. This could be done by sending your chakra to your target with a sequence of handseals, or even by many others medium like eye contact. Once your chakra was inside the target's system, you had to wrestle control of the target's chakra either subtlety or by force. Once the control acquired, you could pretty much do anything you wanted to your target for a simple yet very important reason.

Chakra was closely linked to the nervous system. So theoretically, you could control all the senses of the target, which meant, made him see anything you wanted, heard anything you wanted among others.

The handseals are used just to take over someone chakra system. The more complex they are, the easier and faster you can take over. After that, you needed a good imagination, as you had to make your target believe that everything was real. Genjutsu was difficult to learn because you needed to have very good chakra control and also a good dose of concentration and imagination. After all, the most advanced in the art are able to superimpose the real world with the virtual world they created, allowing them to predict how you will react and if you are caught in the genjutsu or are just faking.

So when Sakura found the foreign chakra, she quickly halted the flow of her chakra using the disruption method . Unfortunately that is when the pentagon she saw took effect. The world blurred around her, just for a few second, showing the real world, and an advancing Kin. But then she faintly heard a sound that could only be made by a bell. And she was back to the sandy world again.

She widened her eyes at that. Knowing that she had even less time than before, she quickly reviewed everything that happened.

'_Calm down and think Sakura._' she thought, taking a huge breath to calm herself.

'_Ok obviously these bells are part of the genjutsu but how? And come to think of it, how did she use genjutsu without handseals? It is a very rare talent and I don't think someone so young can do that already._'

She looked around to find anything that could help her but found nothing. '_This world is just here to give her time to kill me in the real one as there is nothing to frighten me to death._'

It was then that she thought back to the lesson she had about genjutsu and how they needed a medium to be cast, and widened her eyes in realization.

'_Of course, I am so stupid. The bells must be the medium or pseudo-medium. They must work in resonance with each other to send a sound laced with chakra. This sound in fact is the real medium. That is why when I heard that sound, I immediately fell under the genjutsu again. So to get out of this, I must 'kill' my sense of hearing._' She thought smiling.

She acted quickly, by sending chakra to her ears. But instead of enhancing them, she completely shut them down making her virtually deaf. It was a technique that required perfect control of one chakra, less you irreversibly destroyed your senses.

This took immediate effect, as she found herself again in the real world, with Kin standing just above her, and reaching for her kunai. Thinking quickly, she discreetly retrieved a kunai from her pouch, waiting for the right time to make her move. That time came when Kin leaned towards her to strike. And like a tiger ready to pounce on his prey, she struck.

Hard.

"KIN" was head through the vicinity of the clearing they found themselves. Kin was projected towards a tree, all the while leaving a trail of blood in the air.

Sakura hit kin's throat with tremendous force and with the sharpened part of the kunai. The only thing that saved the latter was the jump she made at the last second, thus reducing the damage done to her throat. But the deed was done, as blood was flowing freely out of her body.

'_Why do I feel so lightheaded? And why is it dark outside?_' were kin's last thought before she slumped on the ground. Alive or not, none of them knew.

This seemed to wake up the others members of the Oto team, as they quickly charged at Sakura with rage visible in their eyes. Some would think that they were angry because their teammate was in danger but that wasn't the case. They were upset only because sakura managed to deceive them and at the same time, mortally strike one of them.

Sakura, having noticed the others two approach, quickly took a handful of shurikens from her pouch and launched them at the two. Zaku and Dosu easily dodged the airborne weapons while still advancing towards their target.

"Dosu" yelled Zaku while extending his arms towards sakura. The mentioned nodded before going to the left.

"_Zankuha_"

A deadly mix of air pressure and sound waves made a beeline toward sakura who jumped to her right, dodging the attack. Only for her to appear a few meters before Dosu charging at her like a raging bull. She could only widen her eyes in shock and surprise, having not thought that the two could use teamwork, going by their seemingly bad relationship.

SMACK

The sound was heard clearly in the clearing, as Dosu slammed his fist on sakura's face. The latter was projected toward a tree leaving a trail of blood, not unlike kin earlier. She slammed her back on the tree, silently crying in pain and arching her back, trying to reduce the pain. Thankfully she didn't lose consciousness as her eyes bulged seeing another incoming waves of air from Zaku. Thanks to her hard gained reflex, she had time to make the handseals for the _Kawarimi_, disappearing in a not so silent puff of smoke. Just in time as the tree behind her exploded in splinters from the attack.

"Did I get her?"

Dosu still looked at the dust created by the attack, searching for their target. Once the dust was lifted, there was nothing left behind except the remains of a tree.

"Obviously no!"

He said turning around, while launching a handful of shurikens to sakura who appeared behind them. Sakura not deterred by them, launched her owns against the incoming ones, deflecting them. She then did a few handseals, before 3 copies of her appeared, running alongside her. With the clones she ran in zigzag to confound her targets.

"Dosu!" yelled Zaku, prompting Dosu to crouch on the ground, just in time to dodge another wave of sound and air pressure that destroyed the clones and the real sakura.

Or rather the log that replaced sakura. This time it was Zaku who turned behind himself looking for sakura, expecting her to appear behind him like before. But she wasn't there. Frowning, he looked all around himself searching for his target.

Left, right, behind, in front. Nothing.

It was then that he widened his eyes, as a shadow covered him. He looked above, already knowing what he would find. And indeed, sakura was falling toward him, with a kunai at the ready. He smirked knowing that she wouldn't have time to reach him before he could strike, which he did by launching another handful of shurikens at sakura. He then immediately turned to look around, expecting sakura to replace herself again. But that was his mistake, as the latter moved her arms in front of her, protecting her vitals.

A few of the shurikens touched her, but it was nothing she couldn't endure. In any case, that is what she repeated herself. Once the onslaught was finished, she readied herself by bringing her arm behind her, using her momentum. She was almost before her target when she noticed something in the bush.

Zaku, not finding sakura anywhere, looked again at the sky, only to widen his eyes at her target about to strike him with her kunai. He was completely frozen as he saw the path of the kunai ending at his head. Thankfully, something happened that made sakura divert her strike to a non-lethal part of his body, namely his shoulder.

Fortunately for him, sakura forgot that she was fighting two persons, and was thus taken completely by surprise when Dosu appeared before Zaku, blocking her strike with a kunai of his own. Sakura, who was still airborne, was completely defenceless, as Dosu used his other arm which had the melody arm to strike her face again.

"_Konoha Senpuu_" resonated as Dosu was brutally kicked towards a tree. He couldn't help but think '_Again? Why do these tree lovers like to kick their opponents to a tree? It isn't like we are tree hugging people like them._' With a sneer on his face even though he was about to crash on a tree.

Inside the bush sakura looked at before, Team 10 made of Ino, Shikamaru and Choji were looking at the fight with widened eyes, and struggling to decide whether to help sakura or not. Shikamaru on the other hands was looking at sakura with narrowed eyes.

'_Another one Kaa!_'

Zaku, who regained control of his emotions, looked at the one who helped Sakura in wonder. '_Green jumpsuit? Is that even legal?_'

He then looked at the downed sakura, huffing in exertion, before feeling a chill going up his spine. '_I wasn't dreaming, she really was about to kill me._' He thought a little scared. But quickly squashed the feeling, hard. After all, he was from Oto where any weakness show could and would be used against you.

* * *

**With the sand team**

* * *

A few miles away from the fight that was taking place between the Konoha nins and the Oto team, another team was standing in the middle of a sea of blood. Standing nonchalantly in the middle of this butchery was Gaara, a member of the Sand team. On his back, a gourd was fastened. The sand that was floating above his head rushed through the little gap that served as sole entry to the gourd. Moment later, the gourd was filled to the brim with sand before it was closed with a cap carved by the leftover sands.

Behind him stood his teammates. The thing that stood out the most was the nonchalance with which they stood, arm crossed on their chest, completely disregarding the blood on the ground, as if it was an usual occurring.

The only girl of the team finally looked at a bush beside them, narrowing her eyes.

"What do we do about those insects Gaara?"

The mentioned turned around to look at his teammate with a cold look that would have frozen even the most hardened shinobi for a second at least. Strangely enough, the girl didn't react at all. She just maintained eye contact with Gaara waiting for his answer.

The answer never came. At least not from him, but from the last member of the team, a boy with what looked like painting on his face and a package attached on his back.

"We do not have time to deal with pesky ninjas like them, or have you forgotten our main objective Temari?" The girl only scowled at that.

"Of course not Kankuro. But wouldn't it be better to deal with them considering they saw a little of Gaara's ability?"

"And what pray tell will they be able to glean from it?" the girl could only nod at that.

"Sorry but old habits die hard. I forget that we are dealing with tree huggers. They have been considered the strongest ninja village for so long that they became overconfident and are now producing the weakest of ninjas" A sneer could be seen after she said that, before she smirked when she noticed the bush shaking a little.

'_So they got angry... Of course they will do nothing knowing that they are likely to get killed if they act._' She thought.

This time though, they were interrupted by none other than their teammate Gaara who looked at Temari with an inquiring look, expecting her to answer a question he hadn't even asked. Temari could only stare him back with a blank look as if stating '_Ask the question first, I am not a diviner you know!_' With a grunt, the short boy finally opened his mouth.

"We have the scrolls we need for the next part of this test. So we can begin the next part of our mission."

He stopped and looked at Temari expectantly but like before she only looked back waiting for whatever he will say. Continuing in the same monotone,

"Can you locate the target?"

This time Temari understood, and quickly brought her right hand in the ram seal, before closing her eyes in concentration. Outside, everything was still the same while in Temari's mind, she was now seeing all around herself in a black and white background. The only things that were coloured were a few random spots here and there, including her team and the team in the bush.

This was an ability she had had since her birthday. Oh no, it wasn't the ability to sense chakra like sensors could. In fact, it had nothing to do with it at all. Of course, it served the same purpose, but in a different way. While sensors were able to sense chakra around them and even track someone by locking on the target's chakra, she on the other hands could sense materials around her. More precisely,

_Metal._

Indeed, she could sense any kind of metal around her, in a one mile range. At first her vision wasn't as clear as now. It was difficult for her to sense beyond 10 meters. But as she grew, the ability also grew. Of course, she did a good job of hiding this little ability from anyone except her team. Obviously because of just how vicious her father could be when he wanted something.

But I digress. The ability allowed her to feel any metal in her range, when she was concentrating. Considering the amount of metal ninjas carry, it was safe to say that few could sneak past her. The only issue was that she couldn't differentiate people as they could have the same kind of metal as another person. So to overcome this problem, she came up with a metal that was almost impossible to find anywhere. And now she just had to mark her target by putting a sample of it on their bodies, before she could track them easily.

Concentrating on the metal she was looking for, she extended her range to the limit. After a minute or so, she opened her eyes with a frown on her face.

"I can't find the target"

The reaction was immediate.

"What do you mean you can find him? I thought you marked him?"

Kankuro asked looking surprised more than anything.

"Not him" she said looking at the space thinking. Kankuro noticing what she said frowned.

"Come again?"

"I said not him. I didn't mark the target directly as I didn't know just what we were dealing with. Instead I marked his teammates."

"So you chickened!" Kankuro said smirking at Temari who glared at him before looking at Gaara.

"Anyway, if I can't find them, that means they're outside my range. So it isn't my fault"

Gaara frowned at that. Also this was the first time he showed any emotions since they started speaking. They were silent for a moment before a sigh was heard coming from Gaara.

"I will have to use it then" He said finally, while forming a few handseals, finishing with the ram seal. Suddenly, a little amount of sand exited his gourd and floated beside him. Then it merged, shaping itself into an eye the size of a fist. The eye flew skywards, stopping a few meters above the tree-top. Then Gaara closed his eyes. In his mind his normal sight was replaced with that of the huge eye.

This was the eye of _Shukaku_. Thanks to it, he could see in a very far away. Using the eye, he concentrated on finding his target, looking left and right. A few minutes later, he finally found his target moving toward what seemed like a battle between Konoha and Oto Nins. Having seen what he needed, he opened his eyes, while the one in the sky dissolved in sand that came back to his gourd.

"They are around 5 miles away in that direction" he pointed towards where he saw the target. The others nodded before they _shunshin_-ed to that location.

Seeing that the sand team was gone, three Konoha nins got out of the bush sighing in relief.

* * *

Tenten had been moving through trees for a few hours now and couldn't help but be frustrated. Naruto and her had been looking for their lost teammate Lee since morning, but were having no luck in finding him. It came to a point where they had to part way to cover more ground. But she suspected that Naruto just wanted to find the scroll they needed, allowing them to keep going after the tower once they found their teammate.

While moving, she thought about the morning's happenings, when she felt a huge discharge of chakra not far from her position. Having a teammate who valued stealth above anything made her pick something from him. She changed course, going after the chakra she felt. While taking care of being as silent as possible.

It wasn't long before she reached the area, and what she saw surprised her. She stood on a tree, using the leaves to hide herself from those on the ground. In front of her, stood two Konoha teams, an Oto team and finally the one she was looking for since morning, Lee, her teammate.

But what surprised her was the state in which they were.

'_You would think having the advantage in number, they would easily dispatch these twp Oto nins._' she thought seeing Lee on the ground seemingly unconscious. Next to him, a girl she knew to be called Sakura, also in bad shape, going by the cuts all over her clothes. Another group of 3 Konoha nins stood ready, close to the trees, but seeing their state, she knew they were tired. And finally the last one, the Uchiha if she remembered correctly, was fighting against the two Oto nins. Again, he was losing and seemed very tired.

To understand what is going on, we need to go back a few minutes earlier. Once Lee arrived and helped Sakura, he then battled with Dosu. Having the advantage because of his speed, he quickly overwhelmed the latter, and used the _primary lotus_, a technique allowing the user to open the first gate of the chakra circulatory system, thus gaining a boost in speed and strength. But he didn't count on Zaku who intervened just in time to save Dosu. Add to that, he got very winded as the primary lotus was a double edged technique. Because of the sudden physical boost, the body took much damage from it.

Afterward, the battle shifted again with the Oto team taking advantage, until team 10 composed of Ino Yamanaka, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji intervened. This resulted in a fight between the two Oto nins and team 10, as Lee and sakura were too tired to fight.

Despite the clever ruses they used, they didn't succeed in defeating their opponents, instead they were the one in danger thanks to the strange ability Dosu possessed, allowing him to generate and amplify sound at different frequencies. Even being close to the sound nin hand was dangerous as said hand produced a sound at a frequency that affected the body as a whole. It wasn't long before they disposed of the Konoha team, or rather rendered them unable to fight anymore.

When they were about to finish the work though, their primary target the Uchiha finally woke up covered from head to toes with black marking that moved around his body. Being familiar with the cursed seal, they quickly understood what was going on and they weren't pleased to say the least. After all, no one would be happy to learn that they were just pawns to someone. Pawns because they deducted from everything that happened since the start of their mission, that Orochimaru was using them to test the Uchiha, considering the fact that he gave him the cursed seal. So the Sannin estimated that they wouldn't be able to take out the Uchiha. But said Sannin forgot one very important thing.

They already knew how the cursed seal worked and what happened when it was applied on someone.

Using this knowledge, they came up with a simple plan, stale the Uchiha until the first activation ended. Knowing that the first time someone used the seal, it only lasted approximately 5 minutes before they collapsed too tired to even move properly, let alone fight. Of course it was easier said than done. The little fight that ensued was a slaughter to say the least. They were completely outclassed but they didn't give up and kept fighting, resulting in Zaku having his left hand broken by Sasuke. But they were rewarded as the seal finally stopped working, leaving a barely moving Sasuke to take their revenge upon.

That was the scene Tenten stumbled upon, two ninjas from Oto standing over Sasuke with a feral smirk firmly attached on their faces, and glee at the anticipated beating they were about to deliver to him. Not knowing if she could handle them alone, she took a strange paper from her pouch. Upon the fabric was a very confusing and complex scribbling, easily recognizable as a seal. She sent her chakra to it, knowing that it would not only alert naruto that she found Lee, but also work as a beacon of chakra literally, allowing naruto to find her quickly.

She looked again at the scene and saw Dosu and Zaku beating the Uchiha but choose not to interfere as they weren't attacking her teammate.

'_In this forest, there is no Konoha team, only the strong will survive to see the next part of the exams._' she thought harshly.

A few meters from the fight, the sand team was looking at the scene in surprise, not having expected the Konoha team to have been felled by ninjas from such a weak country. They were even more surprised upon seeing a member of the team hailed as strongest genin team of Konoha, unconscious.

Temari looked at Kankuro with an incredulous look on her face.

"I thought they were supposed to be extremely powerful."

Kankuro looked at her intrigued. "Whom are you talking about?"

"The one with the green jumpsuit. He is a member of our target's team. Who did you think I was talking about?"

"The Uchiha! Anyway, it is surprising indeed, especially against such weak opponents. But where are the others members of the team?"

Kankuro looked at Gaara at this with a questioning look. Gaara only raised his right hand, pointing with his finger the area where Tenten hiding. He then said with complete apathy.

"The girl on the team is hiding there. Namikaze on the other hand, isn't here. They must have been separated."

The others two nodded while keeping an eye on what was going on. The whole time thinking about how to get information on Naruto, not wanting to meet the Kazekage, their father, with nothing to report.

Naruto was moving from trees to trees, in the direction Tenten took earlier when they parted way. He finally found the scroll they needed. All in all, they had 5 heaven and one earth scrolls. He couldn't help but feel good about himself, knowing that they could now move up to the next stage of the exam. It was then that he felt a paper on his pouch, burn. Knowing the meaning of the heat, he quickly activated his sensor ability to search his surrounding, looking specifically for the signature emitted by the paper he gave to Tenten.

Surprisingly, he found her quickly as she wasn't that far from his current position. But he was a little alarmed as he sensed a large variety of signatures in the area she was, causing him to conclude that she was in hostile territory. He increased his speed to such a level that he was only a blur for anyone that was looking at him.

He arrived at the area a minute later, having stopped far from the actual area as he was analysing what was going on.

'_11 ninjas in the clearing, including Tenten and Lee. Tenten is still hiding. Good, she didn't try to play the hero._'

He then looked behind Tenten. '_Another team close to them. The sand team if I correctly remember their signature._'

Finally he looked at his right where he sensed another ninja. '_Also even further away is the one who gave information about genins in the exam. What was his name again? Yes Kabuto. He is observing everything that is happening._'

'_To resume, Tenten is spying upon those in the clearing. She doesn't know that she is also being observed by the sand team, who strangely enough, are also being observed unwittingly by Kabuto. In what kind of world did I stumble upon?_' he thought sighing to himself.

He finally moved again, jumping from trees to trees, taking care of staying unseen by everyone, even though he knew that it wouldn't stay the same for long. He stopped beside Tenten who was still looking at the beating Sasuke was taking and patted her on her shoulder in such a way that Tenten knew who he was, something they had trained in their team, to keep themselves from reacting in the wrong way.

Tenten turned and looked at naruto who nodded at her. They didn't need to talk as they both knew what they had to do. The two stepped forward to retrieve their unconscious teammate.

Behind them, the sand team was shocked when they saw their target with Tenten, as he arrived there without their notice.

"When did he come?" Temari looked bewildered as she questioned her teammates. The latter had nothing to say as they too were frozen in shock.

'_To be able to sneak upon all of us like that… Namikaze, you will definitely feed mother with your blood._' A maniacal smile could be seen upon Gaara's face, prompting his teammates to stand back a little in fright.

'_Again with his psychotic smile! Does God really hate me so much? I have a psycho as little brother and a bossy girl as big sister. And as if it wasn't enough, we are on the same team. What did I do to deserve such thing?_' Kankuro thought dejected.

In the clearing, Dosu was still beating the helpless Sasuke, with the other looking at this, powerless to do anything, when he sensed two people above them in the trees. They turned around to look at the people daring to interrupt them on their self deserved reward but couldn't help but frown at what they saw.

"Another Konoha team it seems. Is it me or they are coming here like a flock of birds?" Dosu asked sarcastically with Zaku smirking at the jab.

"Talk about spoilsport."

Dosu smirked too, even though it wasn't visible on his face thanks to the medical tape on his face.

Meanwhile, the two kept moving towards the downed Lee, not even caring about what the Oto ninjas were saying.

"What do you think you are doing?" Zaku said once he saw them heading for one of the downed Konoha nins.

This time, they faced Dosu and Zaku.

"Isn't it obvious, we are here to retrieve our teammate there" Tenten pointed at the area Lee was.

Dosu narrowed his eyes at that before he looked at naruto with an intense stare. He couldn't help but sense something amiss about naruto. '_Where did I see him?_'

Zaku, not liking the tone Tenten used, glared at her. The tone reminded him of his childhood, when he was constantly belittled because he was an orphan. With the other children thinking they were his betters. He wasn't about to let anyone think themselves superior to him anymore.

"Again this high and mighty attitude of Konoha ninjas." He said with distaste. "Always thinking they are superior to anyone not from Konoha. I have news for you bitch, in the real world, ninjas like you are always the first to die."

Tenten looked at him with an incredulous look. '_Has he lost his mind or something? I just explain to him what we were doing here and now he's telling me about his fucking life story! What the fuck?_'

Naruto on the other hand, couldn't stop the snort escaping from his mouth. '_I wonder who the arrogant one here really is_'.

Unfortunately, the snort was noticed by the Oto ninjas, and this only served to increase their anger. Zaku moved his hand to retrieve some spare kunais when Dosu finally recognized Naruto.

"I knew I had seen you somewhere. You must be the Namikaze everyone in the elemental countries is talking about. The son of the yellow flash." He exclaimed inciting a gasp of surprise from everyone actually in the clearing as it was the first time most of them saw him.

'_So this is him? How troublesome! At least they will help... Maybe._' Shikamaru thought while looking at what was going on.

The others members of his team were also happy. After all, in their conditions they would gladly accept any help they could receive.

'_So it is him. The supposed strongest genin in Konoha? I don't see anything that set him apart from us!_' Sasuke thought while raising his head, looking at the new incomers. Even raising his head was painful after the beating he received. But he was an Uchiha; he would do anything to keep his pride intact.

Naruto sighed at what Dosu said. "And what if I am?" were the first words everyone heard from him.

Dosu and Zaku couldn't help the smirk that appeared on their faces.

'_An even more interesting target than the Uchiha. Imagine the fame we'll get if we took out the last Namikaze. This will show Orochimaru not to underestimate us._' Both Oto nins thought. A creepy thing, considering they had the same thought at the same time.

Zaku finally spoke again looking at naruto with glee.

"If you are, then we will just take care of you like we did with the others here" he gestured to the beaten team 10 and 7. He then turned to Dosu.

"Dosu, can you imagine what will happen if we were to tell our superiors that we took out the Namikaze?"

The glee on Zaku's face seemed contagious, as Dosu also sported one himself hearing what Zaku said.

"I know Zaku, I know."

Tenten, couldn't help but roll her eyes at what she was witnessing.

"Excuse me, but are both of you idiots or something?"

Dosu and Zaku looked at her again with incredulous eyes.

"I couldn't hear you correctly. What did you said?" Zaku asked trembling with suppressed rage.

Tenten as if she didn't notice the rage in his eyes, kept going.

"You heard me right. You take me for a recorder or something?" She put her hands on her waist as if to make a point. "You don't pay me for repeating what your retarded mind cannot understand do you?"

Dosu and Zaku were now shaking in rage, unable to contain their emotions anymore. Unfortunately for them, it seems Tenten wasn't finished with them.

"And I don't even think that you could afford my services. Look at you. One has a medical tape covering the whole part of his face. Were you brought back to life by your parents or something. I could swear that you were a mommy from where I was standing looking at you."

It was gradual but even those in the clearing and around cracked a little smile at that. And if that wasn't enough, Zaku smiled a little too. Which didn't go unnoticed by his teammate who was quick to scold him.

"You" He pointed Zaku with his finger in anger. "Don't you dare laugh at this. You are with the konoha team or what?"

Zaku quickly rose his hand in defence, but before he could speak, someone spoke again. That person was someone they were beginning to hate with passion.

"And that is not even talking about the other one standing there like a glorified pig with too much ego to notice his own failing."

This time, it was Zaku who looked at her with murderous eyes. Which only seemed to make Tenten smile.

"What? Did I hurt your feelings?" she rolled her eyes again. "Sorry, I didn't know that behind this bad guy attitude of yours, was hiding a little girl lacking love."

The fact that she was saying all of this with a straight face, made the others think that she was deadly serious and thought everything she said was the truth. The ones on the receiving end of her comments, on the other hand, didn't seems very happy at all and were ready to charge her with everything they had.

Meanwhile, naruto sighed, already knowing that Tenten would react like this. Very few knew this, but she liked to berate others using words, either by being sarcastic or by pointing out the truth they hid from. Understandable as she grew up with other children who were physically stronger than her, until she began her ninja training that is. He turned around showing his back to Dosu and Zaku, looking at Lee intensely. After a moment he opened his mouth.

"How long are you going to play dead?" The voice was soft. Maybe even too soft. There was nothing, no emotions behind those words. He was just stating a fact, an undeniable truth.

Everyone looked at him surprised. They couldn't see with whom he was talking to after all. The only one on his line of sight was Lee and Sakura who were unconscious.

Still on the ground, the one naruto was speaking to couldn't help but let out a frustrated growl. '_How does he knows?_' Sighing, he slowly rose to his feet, much to the surprise of the other observers. But who could blame them, they all thought Lee was unconscious until now.

Lee couldn't help but point accusingly at naruto with his finger.

"How the hell did you know I was faking?" he yelled.

Naruto just as calmly as before answered with a straight face.

"You were faking? I honestly thought you were just too lazy to wake up." He passed his hand on his hairs. "My bad then!" Before turning around to look at Tenten.

Lee behind him, looked like a dog that just lost his candy.

"That's it? You won't even explain to me how you knew?"

Naruto didn't even react to his grumbles, much to Lee's disappointment.

"Tenten, let's get out of here. I am tired of being in this forest."

Tenten nodded, before turning back. Not even glancing at those in the clearing who sported an incredulous look on their faces. Some shocked by the fact that they wouldn't receive any help, others by the dismissive way with which team 9 treated them.

Lee and Tenten were in front of naruto as they were going towards their objective: the tower. When someone in the clearing once again interrupted them.

"You 3 are really getting on my nerves. You come here, treat us like crap and think we will just let you go like that?" An angered Dosu said. The visible parts of his face were red in anger.

Still walking, naruto didn't even face them when he answered.

"Like my teammate said earlier, you really are quite stupid."

"What?"

"I dare you to repeat it to my face, bastard" Zaku yelled incensed.

"And you will do what? Beat me with your only working hand?" naruto said carelessly.

"Look at you. One of you only have one unusable hand, another is on the ground bleeding to death if not already dead. Not counting the fact that all of you are tired from all the fighting you did. And then the two of you have little to no chakra left, thanks to the childish way you used it before. Who in their right mind would waste their time in beating an enemy when they can just kill him and be done with it?"

The two had nothing to answer to that. Now that the rush of the battle was over, they saw just how badly they had handled things around here. Especially with one of their members on the ground, obviously dead, going by the amount of blood surrounding her.

It was just now that they finally understood that they wouldn't be able to continue the exam, as they needed their third teammate to pass this part of the test.

"And now you want to engage a team not only fully rested, but one you don't even know the abilities. If that isn't the stupidest thing I've ever heard … now excuse us, but we have already wasted enough time as it is. Just be happy that I don't give a flying fuck about what happen to those konoha nins. After all, if they have been enrolled in this exam, then that means their sensei have deemed them capable enough."

With that naruto kept walking, ushering his teammates to do the same, even reluctantly. But they knew not to question him as he was the leader of the team and going by the way he handled this, he wasn't in the best of mood.

The konoha nins in the clearing widened their eyes at the fact that they would be left to their fate. They were about to yell at them for help when Zaku did the dumbest thing he could have done. Granted he wasn't very smart to begin with, but that was just the icing on the cake.

He used is only available hand to point it at the walking team 9 and yelled.

"**_Zankuha_**".

A deadly wave of fused air pressure and sound waves headed quickly toward the still walking team 9, with naruto behind Tenten and Lee. Strangely enough, none of them reacted as if they weren't alarmed by the attack closing on them.

'_They just had to awaken the dragon, didn't they?_' Tenten thought with an hint of pity. But for whom, that was the question.

When the wave was just behind naruto, he raised his right hand quickly in a ram seal. A red square of energy surrounded his middle and pointer finger before he muttered _"_**_Ketsu_**".

The effect was instantaneous as a bluish square barrier surrounded team 9, shielding them from the attack. A violent explosion shook the clearing, lifting dust around the area of impact.

"That will teach them not to underestimate us." Zaku said to Dosu who looked at the smoke intently.

"I wouldn't think like that if I were you, Zaku? Those guys won't die so easily if they are considered the strongest genin team of konoha." He answered while preparing himself for the worst.

When the smoke cleared, they were stunned to see an undamaged team 9 still with their back facing them. Everything in a square around them was strangely unaffected by the attack. And that made Dosu narrows his eyes.

'_What happened?_' he thought.

Zaku was about to once again yell in anger, when an oppressive aura fell upon them, stopping them dead in their track. It was then that they heard an ominous voice.

"Do you know the storytelling of the sleeping dragon?" the voice asked. Not letting them answer, not that they could with the amount of fear, primal fear they were experiencing at the moment.

"It speaks of a warrior who wanted to show others his might. He did everything he could to achieve his goal, not caring about his limits, daring anyone to face him. One day, he heard about a dragon living in a cave, not far from his home. So to prove his might, he gathered a few men to act as witnesses, as he went to defy the dragon. Upon facing said dragon, he found out that it was asleep. At first he used this to his advantage and tickled the dragon showing the others his fearlessness. Not satisfied with just that, he did the most idiotic thing he could have done."

The voice paused as if to mark a pause. Thanks to the aura in the clearing, most were listening with rapt attention and a little fright added to it. Naruto turned his head, looking at Zaku directly in the eyes.

"He woke up the dragon from his slumber."

Naruto moved his right hand again in the same seal as before. "_Ketsu_".

The same bluish square barrier formed. But this time around Zaku who looked shocked at this.

"And now I am sure you want to know what happened to that warrior!" Naruto inquired to a trembling Zaku who nodded slowly.

"The same thing that will happen to you." And with that he did a small gesture with his hand while muttering. "_Metsu"_.

And much to the horror of those looking at the scene, the barrier imploded from the inside out, reducing everything in it to dust.

Dosu could only look in shock at what happened.

'_I don't understand. What was that? No that is impossible, I must be dreaming._' He was so shocked that his mind was trying to comprehend the events that took place just a moment ago.

The others weren't fairing better, as it was the first time they saw such an attack, especially the easy with which Naruto disposed of his target. It was disconcerting to say the least.

Naruto looked at the last member of the Oto team, weighing the pros and cons of ending him. Finally, seeing his shocked look, he just moved his head to look at his teammates, and ushered them to keep moving.

In the clearing, the konoha teams, despite the shock, took advantage of the situation and knocked Dosu out, while helping the others. The sand team, having observed what they needed, moved toward the tower also.

"Interesting" was the word that came from Kabuto after witnessing for the first time the famed bloodline of the Namikaze. He too, moved from his position, to continue his mission.

**A few days later**

The second part of the exam just ended, and those who passed were gathered in a giant hall of the tower, where they were supposed to partake in a preliminary setting that would reduce their number significantly. The hokage having already explained to them the reason behind the chunin exam. Only 6 teams passed the forest of death. Those were:

Team 7 from konoha (Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno and Sai).

Team 8 from konoha (Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuga).

Team 10 from konoha (Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi, Ino Yamanaka).

Team 9 from konoha (Tenten, Rock Lee, Naruto Namikaze).

The sand team (Sabaku no Gaara, Sabaku no Kankuro, Sabaku no Temari).

Kabuto's team (Kabuto, Akado Yoroi and Misumi Tsurugi).

They were all ready to fight, although they didn't know the amount of information they were about to learn soon.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Piouff, that was long. Anyway, I hope you like it, give me your opinion.

As a challenge, everyone that can tell me what Shikamaru means by "another one", will have a cookie. ok I know it is stupid, but hey, it isn't like I can give you something online.

Next chapter will have the preliminaries. Expect the unexpected, especially in the way the fight will happen. See you soon.


	4. Gifted, Prodigies and Genius

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto or Kekkaishi. It is the propriety of Kishimoto and ? respectively.

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone.

I hope everyone enjoyed the new year Eve, like I enjoyed. You will notice that I updated this story a day after the date announced. That is normal, I wasn't really in any capability to do so earlier.

Anyhow, I present you the third chapter of 'Naruto the true ninja'. I couldn't reach the spot I wanted before stopping because it was already too long. So you will have to wait for the next chapter for the following. I am not really happy how this chapter came out when I read it, but no matter what I did, I couldn't find a better way to explain something that will prove important for the next chapters, so you will have to deal with it for now. And tell me what you think of it, once you finish reading this chapter.

Now to answer some reviews:

**Queenwitch : **I can't answer that yet without spoiling. The only thing I can say is that nothing is as it seems in this story. You will soon learn that everyone has hidden motives thanks to several twists that will soon appear.

**Malix2 : **I know that I humanized Zaku too much before killing him, but I learned that for a death to have the desired effect, you need to make the reader gain an attachment to the character. That is why I did it. A piece of advice, never think that because a character is developed in my story, he won't die. In my story anyway. That is how I like to write. For the cold and uncaring thing, that is exactly what I am trying to portray. There is a reason behind his personality that will be explained later on, when we learn of his past.

For the others reviewers, thank for reviewing my story. It really warm my heart (lol) to see someone interested in reading my story. Sorry for not updating earlier but blame my overworking mind because I have so much ideas that it is difficult to concentrate on only one story. I have 3 others stories I have publied, and 3 more that I am currently writing but for those I am waiting for them to be finished before posting them. I write mostly every time I have an interesting idea for a story. I know the general plot of all my stories but putting in on paper is another story.

Anyway, I have to stop boring you, so I will let you read the chapter 4 of this story.

Edited: 05/12/2013

* * *

**_Chapter 4: gifted, prodigies and genius_**

* * *

Inside the great hall, were standing some of the greatest genins of their generation. Among them were the heirs of the Namikaze and Uchiha clan. Each one of these clans was widely acknowledged as among the most powerful that had existed and still existed. Currently, the genins were moving toward the balconies, all the while looking at the screen above their heads. Apparently they were supposed to fight among themselves to determine those that were worthy of participating in the last part of the chuunins exam.

The fights were one on one and were managed by a proctor that introduced himself as Hayate Gekko. On the balconies, stood the jounin sensei of each team. Each of these jounins was standing relatively close to the team they led. Among them were Asuma Sarutobi, the sensei of team 10 from Konoha, Kurenai Yuuhi, team 8's sensei, Kakashi Hatake, the sensei of team 7 and finally Maito Gai, team 9's sensei.

Those were the ninjas from Konoha, not including Kabuto's team, but as the older team wasn't close to any of the mentioned above, they weren't standing among them.

Far away from them, stood impassively the members of the sand team with their sensei Baki standing behind them. It was easy to feel the tension in the hall. Everyone among the fighters, was analyzing their would be opponent, trying to gather as much information as they could before the start of the fighting.

Once they reached the elevated stages, they directed their attention toward the arena in the center of the room. Hayate was standing there, as he was the referee of the battles. Not far from the center of the arena, on a slightly elevated spot, serenely stood the Sandaime Hokage in accordance to the proceedings of such event. Also beside him were his advisors Homura and Koharu.

According to the proceedings of this event, it was strongly advised for the village holding the chuunins exam that the Kage in charge of the village be present during the preliminaries. It was also required of him to explain to the young ninjas, the reasons behind this event.

Having already given the explanation to the hopeful chuunins (AN: It is the same explanation from canon.), Sarutobi and his advisors were like everyone, looking at the board that would determine the future battles.

'_The only things noteworthy in this proceedings are the fact that my estranged student put a cursed seal on Uchiha Sasuke, and the strange genin that is Kabuto. The fact that he gave up even though he was still able to fight doesn't bode well for him in the future. I will have Ibiki look into that later on._'

Sarutobi's thoughts were suddenly interrupted when the board finally chose the first battle of the day.

**Sasuke Uchiha VS Akado Yoroi**

The fight didn't last long. At first Yoroi used his incredible ability to absorb Sasuke's chakra, thus rendering him close to exhaustion. But the latter, using his last and only encounter with Rock Lee, used the beginning of the _Omote Renge_ to overcome his opponent. In the end he created a new move consisting of taijutsu attacks that allowed him to dispatch Yoroi.

This fight didn't leave him unscathed though, as the cursed seal he received in the forest of death – courtesy of Orochimaru – chooses the time he was using his new combo to activate itself. But he did something that surprised those who knew of the cursed seal.

He overcame it completely.

This in turn allowed him to finish his combo, thus winning his fight. On the balcony, Lee was looking at Sasuke in disbelief and a little bit of frustration. Something that didn't go unnoticed by Naruto who was leaning on the wall with his arms crossed on his chest.

"I see that the Uchiha used the technique you _graciously_ showed him during your spar."

Lee turned to look at Naruto with a carefully controlled anger but said nothing knowing that he didn't have anything to say and only had himself to blame. The other Konoha teams looked at the interaction with surprise and a little bit of curiosity, as they couldn't discern if the comment was made to be a scathing remark or something else. But seeing that none of the two elaborated further, they turned their eyes back on board waiting for it to draw the new fighters.

Said board flew through several names before stopping for two, thus announcing the next fight.

**Ino Yamanaka VS Sakura Haruno**

Unlike the first battle, which was interesting and had lot of suspense, this one was nothing short of disappointing. It wasn't a battle, more like a cat fight. Most of those in the room couldn't help but look at the display in disgust, while the Konoha ninjas were looking at it in shame. In the end, the result of the fight was a draw, thus stopping the two girls from advancing further in this exam. To the happiness of the Sandaime, as he certainly didn't want to show this kind of ninjas to the future clients that will be attending the finals.

After both girls respective sensei took them back to the balconies, with the exception of Kurenai being the person who took Sakura back, as her sensei Kakashi was gone with the Uchiha soon after the latter's fight, everyone looked again at the board. A few seconds later, the board stopped on two names. Two names that were well known in this proceeding.

One for being the child of the Kazekage, while the other was a member of the supposed strongest genin team of Konoha.

* * *

**Tenten VS Sabaku no Temari**

* * *

The room became silent, as the tension rose. Tenten who was closely standing by Naruto, stole a glance at her teammate leaning on the wall with his eyes closed. Seeing him not looking back, she sighed before jumping down the balcony to the arena. Upon setting foot on the ground, she looked up just in time to see her opponent glide towards her, using her fan as a makeshift glider.

It wasn't long before Temari stopped herself in front of Tenten, with the proctor standing in the middle. Hayate looked at the two before raising his hand.

"Are you both ready?"

The two girls nodded simply.

"Well then, the battle between Sabaku no Temari and Tenten..." he paused a little, eyeing the two. "now begins".

Once Hayate lowered his hand, he jumped backwards to give the two fighters some space. Surprisingly enough, they stayed rooted on their position, eyeing each other. The first to break to silence was Temari.

"So you are a member of the supposed strongest genin team of Konoha?" She asked.

"Konoha's standard seems to be at an all time low I see!" she finished smirking.

Tenten listened her every words barely stopping herself from charging head first at Temari to make her eat her words. Fortunately she had more control over herself and instead tightly clenched her fists. This didn't go unnoticed by Temari who kept going.

"I mean, look at you. You look more like deadweight than anything else. There is nothing special about you. Why would a ninja village like Konoha label you as a strong genin? To me, it's more like they made up the whole _strongest genin team of Konoha_, just to boost their reputation?"

If she were to look around, Temari would have noticed the murderous look given by the Konoha ninjas the more she talked.

"For talking like that in a foreign country, either this girl is extremely courageous, or she is completely stupid." Kurenai said frowning in distaste, while the other jounins nodded to that.

There were several murmurs going on in the room, all about the supposedly cover up that Temari revealed. Of course the only ones that were even remotely thinking that she might be right were the genins who of course didn't know the truth. This was making the Konoha jounins smile.

'_If only you knew the truth, you wouldn't be talking like that little girl_' was going through most of their minds.

Coming back to the arena, Tenten having enough of listening to her opponent, decided to engage first by launching several shurikens at Temari. The latter effortlessly dodged them by weaving around them. Not deterred, Tenten retrieved a scroll from her breast pocket, before opening it in a circular fashion around her. Then by rotating on herself, she launched several kunais and shurikens faster than before, much to the amazement of the onlookers.

'_Those weapons are coming faster_.' Temari thought while dodging some of them. Those she couldn't, she used her fan to push them away. Finally, Tenten stopped and looked as Temari pushed the last of the weapons away. She frowned at that.

"Is that all you can do? You'll have to do better than that. I am not like you Konoha genins." The amusement was clear in Temari's voice.

"One piece of advice though, upon this fan is draw 3 moons. I doubt that you will make me show you all of them, but in case it were to happen..." She stopped and looked at Tenten with a piercing gaze. "... It will be over for you"

Tenten just scowled at that, not even bothering to acknowledge what she said, before she ran toward Temari with more than average speed. '_Let see how you fare in taijutsu then_'.

Temari seeing this, took her fan from her back, and placed herself in a ready position waiting for Tenten to approach. It wasn't long before the latter was upon her and delivered several punches and kicks that were blocked by the fan. She was using the longer reach of her weapon as an advantage. But unfortunately, Tenten had Maito Gai as sensei, so it was obvious that she'd be good in taijutsu.

That was proved true, when she feinted a punch, forcing Temari to try to block it with her fan. But instead, Tenten dropped on the floor, and tried a sweep kick. Fortunately, Temari saw this, and jumped over it. But she forgot that by doing so she would lose her ability to move freely as she was in mid-air. Which Tenten used by taking a kunai from her pocket and launched it at Temari, who was forced to put her fan directly in front of her.

But it covered her view of Tenten, and when she removed the fan, she lost sight of her opponent.

"Where is she?" Temari looked around, trying to find her target.

"Here!"

She heard above her and looked up just in time to see Tenten's kick slam on her face, sending her crashing toward the wall, with blood flowing from her mouth.

On the balconies, Asuma looked at Gai in amazement.

"I can see that she's one of your charge just by looking at this taijutsu, Gai"

Gai answered by smiling widely, showing his white teethes for everyone to see.

Once the dust was settled, the onlookers could see Temari again and she was looking at Tenten with murder in her eyes. Tenten seeing the look smirked, before she ran again toward Temari. But unlike before, Temari opened her fan, showing the first moon, and swung it toward her opponent. A gust of wind was formed and forced Tenten to cover her face until the gust was gone.

When Tenten looked again at Temari's last position, she found nothing. She then looked around, before looking at the ceiling, just in time to see Temari gliding on her fan, above her. She was about to launch another batch of shurikens, when Temari disengaged from her fan, and instead swung it again at close range. This time, 2 moons were visible and the difference was immediate.

A whirlwind was formed and slammed on Tenten violently, creating a layer of dust around the impact. Temari used this time to land on the arena again, waiting for the dust to settle. A few moments later, everyone could see again and were surprised by what they saw.

Because at the center of the impact, Tenten stood, looking at Temari. But what surprised them was the amount of small cuts that were on her body. She looked at Temari with narrowed eyes.

'_This is unsuspected. I would never have expected to fight someone that could so easily counter all of my attacks. She can block most of my long-range attacks. The only advantage I have is in taijutsu, but she won't fall for the same trick twice. She won't let me approach her again._'

"What is it? Are you trying to find another way to attack me, now that everything else has failed" taunted Temari, but frowned when Tenten didn't rise to the bait.

'_My only chance is to use that attack. But I wanted to keep it for the finals.' _She sighed in frustration_. 'Not that I have a choice. It is that or I won't even be in the finals_'.

Suddenly, to the surprise of Temari, she used the blood on her body and put it on the center of her outfit before going through a few handseals. In a puff of smoke, two scrolls appeared. She took them, before launching them toward the ceiling while they were opening themselves. Looking at it, you would mistake it to two dragons rising to the sky.

"I wanted to keep this attack for the finals, but it seems like I don't have a choice, do I?" Tenten said before jumping at the middle of the unfurling scroll while yelling.

**"****_Twin Rising Dragon_****"**

Temari eyed her with apprehension, trying to understand what she was doing. Then a barrage of weapons of all kind was launched at her quite violently. There were so many weapons that it was like there was a grey cloud above her. Thinking quickly, she opened her fan, still at two moons, before sending a violent gust of wind, which scattered all the weapons away from her, stunning Tenten as she touched ground.

But not wanting to stop there, Tenten jumped toward the ceiling again, and moved her hands in an intricate pattern causing all the weapons scattered on the ground to rose again, before she launched them at Temari who sighed.

"No matter what you do, it won't change a thing"

Before she send another gust of wind like before, this time, also sending Tenten crashing on the ground. Seeing Tenten about to get up again, she scowled in frustration. Then she opened her fan completely, showing the 3 moons at her opponent who widened her eyes.

"This is the end." Temari said.

"_Ninpo, Kamaitaichi_"

A whirlwind of wind was launched at Tenten much to the horror of Gai and Lee.

"Tenten!" Lee yelled.

The whirlwind was so strong that it launched Tenten in the sky, and surrounded her. Inside it, Tenten was being cut badly by the small blades of wind. She was close to losing consciousness.

'_Is this it? In less than a week, I have lost two times. After the ordeal with Orochimaru I thought I wouldn't lose to another genin except maybe my teammates, but was I arrogant?_'

Despite the force of the wind, she was still able to steal a look at Naruto who had his eyes closed.

'_Was it enough to convince you? Does this show you how far I'm willing to go to improve?_' she thought desperately.

As if to answer her questions, Naruto opened his eyes and looked at her directly in the eyes. He did a single movement that answered her questions and allowed her to fall to the blissful darkness while remembering what Naruto did.

He _nodded_ with his head.

Time speeded back to normal, and everyone saw the unconscious form of Tenten falling rapidly to the ground. But as if it wasn't enough, Temari put herself under Tenten and positioned her fan in such way that her opponent would fall on it and possibly break her back. She smirked at what she was about to do and just like before time slowed.

Tenten was falling almost at a snail pace toward her doom, when something happened that shocked everyone in the room.

A blue see through cube formed between Temari's fan and Tenten.

The cube allowed Tenten to land softly as it was very pliable. The only one that had an inkling of what was going on were those that were present in the debacle in the forest of death. So it wasn't a surprise when the members of Asuma's team and Lee looked at the still leaning Naruto. He had his right hand in the ram seal and was looking intently at the cube. Then to the dismay of everyone, the cube stretched out toward him. It stopped just in front of him, with Tenten lying above it.

As if on clue, those that weren't looking at him before, now watched him in wonder. Temari on the other hand, had the face of a baby who just had his candy stolen from him. The smirk had completely disappeared.

'_So this is the Namikaze bloodline, the Kekkai jutsu..._' was going through the mind of Konoha's jounins, as it was their first time seeing it.

Hayate, seeing what happened raised his hand.

"Seeing as someone intervened on behalf to Tenten, she's disqualified. Winner Temari of Suna"

Temari hearing this, nodded slowly before moving toward her teammates, all the while looking at Naruto like everyone in the room.

Not bothered in the least by the looks he was receiving, Naruto moved from the wall and put his hand above Tenten's body. Then his hand glowed green, indicating the use of medical chakra. He passed it above every parts of Tenten's body. And whenever his hand left an area, all the cuts disappeared, leaving no scar at all, showing his mastery over the medical art.

_'Fortunately, those cuts were only superficial. They only made her lose blood. With a blood pill, she should be fine.' _Naruto thought while retrieving the pill in question and forcing Tenten to swallow it.

Immediately, those close could already see Tenten's body going from pale to a warm looking color. His work done, he slowly put her on the ground beside him, while the cube dissipated to the wonder of the spectators.

"HUM HUM" Sarutobi hummed to regain everyone's attention and signaling for Hayate to continue with the proceeding, ignoring the muttering of the ninjas whom were talking about what happened.

While the panel rotated, trying to selection a name, Temari was looking at Naruto with barely hidden contempt.

_'That bastard think he can steal my prey like that. This isn't over'_

As if sensing her, Naruto looked at her with the same impassiveness. During a few seconds that seemed like an eternity for Temari, they kept eye contact. Finally, Temari turned away from those eyes with sweat rolling on her forehead.

_'Those eyes... There were NO emotions in them!' she thought frightened. _

She had dealt with people with all kind of emotions before. Be it hate, love, kindness, jealousy. Even bloodlust from a few gangs. But never had she looked at someone in the eyes, and saw not even a hint of emotion behind them. This was new to her, unknown. And like every ninjas, the unknown frightened her greatly.

The board came to a stop, announcing the next battle.

**Choji Akimichi VS Misumi Tsurugi**

Surprisingly, this fight was quick. Misumi possessed the ability to dislocate his joints, thus allowing him to fit into any place or even coiling around his opponent. While Choji, like every Akimichi, could increase the size of any parts of his body. At first the match was to the advantage of Misumi who was faster and more experienced, but he made the error of coiling around Choji, completely forgetting the latter's ability to increase his size to phenomenal proportion. Misumi asked of him to surrender but Choji answered by increasing his body's size to the point of stretching Misumi so much that his body was cut in several parts. This shocked the genins, especially Choji himself who emptied the contents of his stomach on the floor, at the sight of so much blood and body parts. Hayate declared Choji the winner of the match.

With a quick use of Doton jutsu, the gore and vomit was pulled underground, allowing the next fighter to go ahead without a mess to worry about. The board shuffled the remaining names before stopping at two.

**Kiba Inuzuka VS Sai**

This battle was rather interesting as Kiba, with the help of his companion Akamaru, fought against Sai. At first they were evenly matched, to the surprise of everyone, as Kiba was very fast and powerful in taijutsu. So they were surprised when Sai could keep up with not only Kiba but his dog as well.

Kiba, fed up, used his Inuzuka's attributes by slamming a smoke grenade on the ground, thereby impairing Sai movements, as he couldn't see anymore. And quickly took the advantage, allowing him to deliver several strong hits to Sai. Finally, the latter chooses to withdraw from the battle, as he couldn't get out of the smoke screen, thanks to Akamaru waiting for him outside and tracking his movements. Kiba was thus declared the winner.

Sarutobi, unlike most of the ninjas inside the room wasn't fooled though. He was looking at Sai with narrowed eyes.

_'His hand went several times for a sword that wasn't there on his hips. The fact that he was also pulling his punch every time he hit Kiba is another give away.'_

_'He is part of root obviously. But to think that Danzo would be able to train a child this young to the point of having the reflexes of an anbu level ninja ... Maybe we are underestimating Danzo's faction too much' _He thought while narrowing his eyes and stealing a glance at Naruto who had returned to his impassive state and was leaning on the wall.

_In the room, everyone turned again to look at the board, waiting excitedly for the next battle. They weren't disappointed when the board chose two genins that were arguably among the most powerful in this exam._

* * *

**Sabaku no Gaara **VS **Rock Lee**

* * *

"Yosh. Finally it is my turn!" Lee yelled while pumping a hand to the sky, displaying his joy at finally being able to fight. Across him, his sensei was the same, much to the horror of the witness.

"My youthful student will finally display the power of youth"

"Gai – sensei, I won't disappoint you!"

"Lee – kun!"

"Gai – sensei!"

"Lee – kun!"

The duo was comically yelling at the top of their lungs, while hugging each other. Strangely enough, a sunset appeared right behind them, scarring for life those looking at the display.

Meanwhile Gaara simply Shunshin-ed to the arena in a violent gust of sand. He appeared with his arms crossed above his chest waiting patiently for his opponent. He didn't have to wait for long as Lee jumped above the rail of the balcony and smoothly landed on the arena, and immediately put himself in front of his opponent.

Suddenly, Lee's hand rose and caught something in his hand. He opened it and from it, fell what looked like a cap made of hardened sand. He then looked at Gaara with a serious look unlike before.

"You shouldn't be so quick to attack. The fight hasn't even started yet."

Gaara just kept looking at him not acknowledging what was being said, only looking at him with hunger in his eyes.

On the balcony, murmurs were heard as the spectators speculated on the outcome of the fight. While that was going on, the members of the sand team just smirked at the Konoha contingent.

"They don't even know what kind of hell their fellow ninja will endure."

Kankuro nodded at Temari, confirming what she just said.

"If they knew what Gaara really was, they wouldn't be so calm."

"But don't you find it ironic?" She questionned her brother who looked at her in surprise.

"What?"

"The fact that I already defeated one of their 'stars' genin. Now, they are about to witness the defeat if not the death of another. I wonder how the Daimyos will react once they learn that our team decimated Konoha's best?"

Baki, who was calmly listening to their conversation, couldn't help but smirk at that. '_Indeed, I wonder. This will be a harsh blow to Konoha's notoriety at the least. Especially during an exam organized in their own turf._'

He looked at Naruto, who was still leaning on the wall, his eyes closed and frowned. '_But I don't think we should sell the chickens before they hatch, so to say. Who knows what that Namikaze is really capable of.'_

On the arena, Hayate was looking at the two fighters.

"Are you two ready?"

The two nodded and Hayate took that as his cue to start the match.

"Then Hajime!" Before retreating to a safe spot, while still being close enough to judge the match.

Lee was the first to move, as he took a kunai from his pouch, and held it in a reverse grip before charging at Gaara. The latter was still arms crossed, but with sands floating around him like some kind of barrier. He saw Lee charge at him, and waited patiently for the impact.

He didn't wait for long, as Lee closed the distance fast, before slashing at him. But his sand rose to protect him, and perfectly blocked the attack. Lee not deterred, moved around Gaara, all the while slashing or evading the sand attacks. He was looking for an opening but found none. It seemed the sand was always blocking every attacks no matter what.

He was even forced the jump back as the sand was now following him. He dodged each wave of sand, as they slammed on the ground. Another wave forced him to jump to the sky just as it crashed where he was standing. While in mid-air, he took a batch of shurikens and threw them at Gaara, hopping that with most of the sand away from him, he wouldn't be protected.

But it didn't work as sand came from the gourd and blocked the weapons while the other wave of sand retreated back to protect his master. Nonetheless, he used that reprieve to run behind Gaara, hopping to use a blind spot.

"_Konoha Senpuu_"

Lee yelled as he did a rotating kick just behind Gaara. But sand rose again to block it, without Gaara turning around to look at it. Which stunned everyone, as they didn't think that the sand could block an attack that wasn't seen by the boy.

Moreover, the sand grabbed Lee's foot and launched him at the wall quite violently. Fortunately, Lee was able to rotate in mid-air and land on the wall with his feet instead of headfirst. Then he landed on the ground, facing his opponent who hadn't moved since the start of the fight.

Gaara looked at him as if bored.

"Is this the extent of your ability?" A shiver went through the back of most of those presents when they heard the voice. Gaara unfolded his arms in a welcoming gesture.

"Come!"

Among the Konoha contingent, expressions of surprise and curiosity could be found, especially among the jounins sensei. Kakashi was looking at the sand genin with a frown on his face.

"This is the first time I see someone with the ability to manipulate sand so easily."

"Indeed, such ability will be very difficult to bypass. Especially while using only taijutsu." Asuma said while smoking a cigarette.

Sakura who was beside them was surprised by what she heard.

"If that's the case, why doesn't he use Ninjutsu then?"

Hearing this, Gai looked at her with a sad expression on his face.

"That's simple." He took a deep breath as if to still his nerves while the genins were looking at him expectantly.

"Lee – kun cannot use anything other than taijutsu." And as he expected, those hearing this had the same reaction.

"What?!"

Gai took another deep breath.

"My wonderful student has had a disability since birth that make him unable to use chakra for anything other than taijutsu. In other words, he cannot use any Ninjutsu or Genjutsu at all." He said to the stunned audience.

"That is why, we focused solely on taijutsu during his training. If it is a taijutsu battle, Lee will never lose to his peers." Gai finished with pride at the end, even though he still stole a glance at his last student who was ignoring them completely.

In the arena, the battle wasn't going well for Lee though, as he couldn't get close to his opponent, and thus couldn't hit him, which sucked as he was a close ranged fighter. Instead, he was forced to dodge wave after wave of sand. A moment later, he narrowly escaped another wave, by jumping on the statue that was in the room.

'_Whew, that was a close one_' he thought while wiping the sweat rolling down his face.

"Lee – kun!" He was about to move again to engage his opponent when he heard someone call him. He looked at the one who spoke only to see his sensei with his thumb up.

"You can remove them. I give you the permission."

Lee widened his eyes in surprise.

"Really?"

When Gai nodded, Lee smiled like Christmas came earlier. He quickly sat on the giant statue, and rolled up his pants, revealing a set of weights around the ankle, stunning everyone.

While he was removing them, Temari looked at the display in amusement.

"Does he really thinks that a few pounds less will make any differences? What a stupid…"

She was stopped when the weights that Lee removed, fell on the ground, creating a huge crater, thus showing just how heavy they were.

Bulging eyes could be seen after the display.

"Gai, isn't it a bit too much?" Kakashi asked with a sweat drop on his face. Gai only punched his hand to the sky while yelling. "Go!"

Lee obliged, as he disappeared from his spot to appear just in front of a shocked Gaara who wasn't able to follow his movements. He punched at last, and was able to bypass a little the sand protecting Gaara. He moved again, so fast that Gaara lost sight of him.

Gaara moved his head left and right, each time something impacted with his sand, but still he wasn't able to follow him. Finally Lee appeared again above his head, rotating on himself, before drop kicking Gaara.

This time, the kick bypassed the sand and slammed on Gaara's head. The kick was strong enough to make Lee glide on the ground for a few meters to regain his balance, while Gaara was forced to bend downward, almost putting a knee on the ground from the impact.

The Konoha genins seeing this encouraged Lee even more, while the sand team was shocked.

"He touched Gaara?" Temari asked no one in particular, mostly stunned by what happened. After all, no one in Suna had ever been able to bypass the sand guard, so it was natural for them to be so shocked.

Kakashi looked at Lee in wonder.

"He is really fast. You really surpassed yourself with this one, didn't you?"

Gai just smirked.

"Of course. I trained him myself. When I took him, I knew that he would need something of a trump card to be able to compete with the ninja out there, as he lacked the ability to use jutsus. Fortunately I was inspired by our most powerful and youthful hokage to date, the Yondaime hokage."

This grabbed the attention of the entire Konoha contingent. Even Naruto focused on Gai once the latter said this.

"After all, the yondaime, even though he was a Ninjutsu master, rarely used them. Why? Simply because he was too fast for anyone to even touch him."

Now, even the sand team was listening despite the fight going on in the arena.

"At first I thought like several ninjas that yondaime's speed was solely due to the jutsu that got him the flee on sight rank, the _Hiraishin no jutsu_." Baki shuddered at that, still having nightmare of that jutsu, being one of the few that witnessed it.

"But I was proved wrong when one time, I saw him literally destroy a squad of jounins, only using his natural speed. He moved so fast that it was over way before any of them had the time to even launch a jutsu. That is just how fast he was."

"So I concluded that if Lee could reach such speed, he wouldn't have to worry about not being able to use Ninjutsu, as he would be able to outrun any Ninjutsu attacks or even stop them before they were launched. That is why I made him wear weights like myself." Gai finished smugly, much to the awe of the genins.

They all turned back to look at the fight, just in time to see Lee bypass the sand again, and land a strong punch on Gaara's face, sending him skidding across the room.

Lee stopped to look at his handiwork while Gaara stood slowly from his position. Cracks appeared on his face and sand fell from it, showing that he had another layer of sand protecting him. Then to the shock of everyone, he pulled the sand from the ground and made it stick perfectly all over his body, in such a way that it was like a second skin.

Lee looking at this with widened eyes. '_Earlier I could reach him because I was fast enough to bypass his defenses, but now, no matter how fast I am, I won't be able to land a hit without destroying his armor. Only one thing against that.'_

'_Renge!_'

So, he unfastened the bandages that covered his forearms until they were hanging in the air. He put his hands across his face in a guarding position.

"Get ready!" He said before charging at his target with a speed even greater than before, as he had opened the first gate of chakra. Then he began running circle around Gaara who was looking at him as if bored.

"Come!"

"As you wish!" Lee answered before appearing under Gaara and kicking his chin, enough to push him above ground, but not enough for Lee to continue his move.

'_The sand must have rendered him too heavy for my kick to properly push him higher.'_ He thought, before following the first attack with a flurry of kick while the two were ascending the air.

On the sidelines, Kakashi was looking at the combo with appreciation. "Good attacks." While Gai was praying for the attack to work, as he knew that even opening the first gate was damaging for the body.

Once they were high enough, Lee stopped and surrounded Gaara with the bandages he removed from his hand earlier. Gaara looked now like a mummy. Then he held firmly on Gaara before spinning like a top, while falling to the ground headfirst.

"_Omote Renge_**.**" Lee yelled as he touched the ground in an explosive manner, lifting smoke everywhere.

The smoke cleared to show the form of Gaara lying on the crater with his eyes closed. Gai cheered at that, happy for his student. But it didn't last as the Gaara on the ground collapsed on itself, showing that it was just a shell of hardened sand, shocking Lee who was kneeling beside the crater and was exhausted to say the least.

'_Fuck! When did he substitute himself?_' He thought in frustration just as a wave of sand crashed on him, sending him flying to the wall.

"Lee!" Gai yelled. He was stunned that Gaara survived the attack, and even that he didn't saw the latter substitute himself.

"When? When did he…"

"When you closed your eyes, praying. Lee diverted his eyes just for a moment because of the pain he was in, but it was enough for Gaara to act." Kakashi said beside him.

The spectators were looking as Gaara who was launching Lee against every wall of the room. And he wasn't showing sign of stopping yet. Lee was doing his best to dodge but he was still too tired to react.

Naruto was looking at the fight with keen interest ever since Gai talked about having Lee emulate his late father and couldn't help but be disappointed so far.

'_How can he even hope for Lee to reach yondaime's speed, if he himself doesn't even understand the speed of my father? It wasn't only because my father was fast that he was able to dispatch his opponents so easily after all._'

'_First you must know how and when to use such speed for it to be effective. But from what I have seen as of yet, Lee always moves at his top speed, which means constant speed. This makes him easily predictable._'

In the arena, Lee was slowly regaining his strength, as he was now able to dodge a few of the waves.

'_Second was maybe the most important thing about my father. Not only was he fast, but he also had an acceleration and deceleration to match it. He could increase or decrease his speed so fast that he could go from genin speed to his max speed almost instantly. Unlike Lee who need a few seconds for it. And there is the fact that Lee cannot seem to be able to reduce his speed quickly. That is why, he is using strict kata since he removed his weights, and is forced to make wide circle around Gaara to control his speed._'

'_And finally, yondaime had the ability to change direction instantly despite his speed, thanks to his ability to reduce and increase his speed at will. Something that is invaluable to fight multiple opponents at once or dodge a trap._'

Finally, Lee was dodging every wave of sands like in the beginning, much to Gai's joy who was talking to Sakura again.

"Like I said, a lotus blooms twice." He said confident on the victory of his student.

He was interrupted by a voice that wasn't heard since the start of the preliminaries and what it said shocked him.

"Pathetic!"

Hearing this, the jounins and genins turned to look at the person who said that, only to be surprised to see Naruto looking at the fight with his eyes finally opened. Gai was about to ask what Naruto means by that when the mysterious genin spoke again.

"Is this the extent of the power of the Ichibi Jinchuuriki?" Naruto frowned not even acknowledging the look of shock from the jounins and the sand team.

"Not being able to do anything other than moving his sand around. Does he really think that his defenses will hold against skilled Ninjutsu users?"

In the arena, Lee was once again reaching deep inside to release the chakra gates, this time in an effort to finish the fight completely. Naruto seeing this shook his head in disdain.

"And to think that Lee would be so stupid as to not realize that the armor of sand consume so much chakra that by just waiting a few more instant, his opponent would have been forced to stop using it. What a waste of time." He finished while closing his eyes again.

The whole room was looking at him. It was difficult to say if they were shocked because they didn't think about the amount of chakra the armor would consume or because he just admitted that his teammate was stupid. But they didn't have time to think further on it, as Lee acted at that time.

After opening 4 gates, he finally launched himself at Gaara. He was so fast that by simply moving, he displaced so much air, that a blast of wind pushed everything around him. Once he reached Gaara, he attacked him with a flurry of punches. It was so fast that Gaara looked like a punching ball with Lee appearing everywhere Gaara was about to crash, before punching him again.

He was simply too fast for most to follow his movements. Finally Lee wrapped his bandages around Gaara, before punching him violently toward the ground.

As if it wasn't enough, he stopped Gaara with it, before falling down with a kick and a punch at the same time while yelling.

"_Ura Renge_"

The attack was so strong that it lifted a huge amount of smoke and created a wide crater. Lee fell a few meters from the crater, and was yelling in pain, because of the strain caused by the opening of the chakra gates. When the smoke was lifted, Lee saw something that made him stop in shock.

Gaara was slowly raising his hand in his direction. Apparently, the gourd he held on his back was turned in sand too, and used to reduce the damage caused by the landing. Slowly a hand made of sand rose and charged at Lee who was doing his best to flee. But it wasn't to be, as the hand grabbed his right arm and foot.

"_Sabaku soso_"

Gaara said while closing his hand. At the same time, the sand encasing Lee's foot and arm imploded, shocking the Konoha contingent.

Lee fell on the ground like a puppet that had his strings cut.

Again the sand moved toward Lee and was about to reach him, when Gai suddenly appeared in front of the sand path, and dispersed it with a strong backhand.

Seeing this, Hayate was forced to declare Gaara the winner. The latter slowly moved back towards his team, while a silence fell on the room. The medics rushed towards Lee and quickly put him on a stretcher and moved him to the hospital where he would receive extensive care.

Naruto looked at all this with complete disdain. He was aware of the look the sand team was sending him. It was a look laced with surprise and smugness at the same time. If he had to guess, he would say that the surprise was because he knew that Gaara was a Jinchuuriki and the smugness was because the sand team had dispatched his teammates without suffering significant injuries.

"Only one left! Talk about the strongest genin team." Temari said out loud while scoffing at the Konoha nins who heard her and were glaring at her for the comment.

It wasn't long before Gai came back. He had talked with the medic and was relieved to learn that Lee's condition didn't seem to be as bad as he thought it would be. Somehow, Lee had been able to reduce the damage done by the last jutsu used by Gaara. He was proud and sad at the same time for his student, as even if he didn't win his battle, he gave his best. That was all right in his book.

Naruto looking at him coming back couldn't help but sigh.

'_I know that you like Lee like a son, but you will be disappointed when you learn the truth about him. But that's not my place to tell you._' He thought before looking at the shuffling board, as he knew he would soon fight. He tuned out Gai and Tenten – whom woke up just before the end of Lee's battle – as they were talking about Lee, in favor of observing said board.

He wasn't the only one who looked at it in anticipation. Before long, the board stopped, defining the next fight.

**Hinata Hyuuga **VS **Shikamaru Nara**

While the fight wasn't as eventful as the one between Lee and Gaara, it was still pleasant to look at. Pleasant for whom? That is the question. After all, it was the genin who were risking their life in this tournament.

Anyway, Hinata, while being extremely dangerous in close ranged fighting, as she was a Hyuuga, she wasn't able to win against Shikamaru who used his shadow to bind his opponents. At first, Hinata tried to close the gap between them to use her jyuken attacks, but Shikamaru was smart enough to stop her from doing that. He used his shadow to delimit a perimeter around him so that he could bind Hinata if she came too close. Seeing this, Hinata resolved to use weapons and strategy to fight. Unfortunately, when it comes to strategy, the Nara clan, thus Shikamaru, are among the most dangerous opponents someone can have.

It was difficult, but Shikamaru finally succeeded in capturing her with his shadow, before forcing Hinata to surrender, much to the disappointment of Kurenai, as she was hopping that her student would win this fight.

Once the fight was over, only 3 genins were left. They were Naruto, Shino and Kankuro. The last two were eyeing each other while Naruto was looking at the board with his hands crossed over his chest. It wasn't long before the board stopped, announcing the final match of the preliminary.

* * *

**Sabaku no Kankuro **VS **Namikaze Naruto**

* * *

Seeing this, the room became silent again. This time it wasn't because they were anticipating the match. Not that much anyway. No, it was because with this last match, team 9 from Konoha will have fought exclusively against the sand team. As all of their members were put against a member of the opposing team. Murmurs were heard around the room after that.

"Is the board rigged or something?" Shikamaru asked with narrowed eyes. "How come every member of team 9 is put against the sand team? It is true that it can be possible, but the probability for such thing to happen is very low." He finished, looking at the fighters moving toward the arena.

He wasn't the only one who thought like that. Almost every genin were thinking the same but choose not to voice their opinion. With the exception of the sand team that is.

"Don't worry Kankuro. Even if they try to cheat it won't matter anyway. Just kick his ass. Namikaze or not, if he is anything like his teammates, he won't do much against you!" Temari yelled at her brother who looked at her with a sweat drop.

'_Easier said than done. This kid is a monster and you know it. You were there with us in the forest after all. But thanks for trying to cheer me up._' He thought while moving.

Tenten looked at Temari glaring daggers at her for being called weak, but Temari just sneered in her direction once she saw the look on Tenten's face.

While this was going on, the jounins were looking at the fighters, particularly Naruto in anticipation.

"We finally get to see the Namikaze in action." Asuma said to his fellow jounins.

"Indeed! I heard that he was a very dangerous ninja despite his young age." This time it was Kurenai who spoke not minding the fact that the genins were looking at them with curiosity. "Is it true Gai?"

Gai grinned widely when he heard the question. After all, even though he didn't train Naruto as much as his other students, he was still proud to be his teacher. Moreover it wasn't like Naruto needed as much supervision as the others, having seen some of the things he was capable of.

"Dangerous doesn't even come close to describe what he is Kurenai. While I admit not knowing the full extent of his capability, I can tell you this…" He turned to look at her in the eyes with the most serious expression he could muster. "Few people have managed to frighten me with their skills. And Naruto is among those"

This stunned the ones listening to him and immediately they turned to look at the fight in anticipation and hoping to see what would frighten a jounin of such calibre. The sand team having heard this, looked attentively at the fight too, hoping everything would go well for their fellow sand nin.

In the arena, Hayate had just given the signal for the two fighters to begin. Tension was high as the two were observing each other.

'_This isn't a fight where I can joke around. I will have to use everything I've got to win this._' Kankuro thought while he adjusted the long object he had on his back, fastening it thoroughly. Gaining the attention of everyone as they wondered what it was. Naruto though, was still looking calmly at him. He hadn't moved since the start of the fight.

Then as if another signal was given, Kankuro moved slowly around the still motionless Naruto, taking care of keeping his distance. This move surprised Naruto a little, but not enough to get a rise from him, as he observed Kankuro circle him like a predator.

'_I must not stay in the same position for too long. I certainly don't want him to surround me with that cube of his._' Kankuro thought while moving.

Shortly after, his speed increased, as he was now running in zigzag around Naruto, not giving his opponent a pattern to use. At the same time, he launched several shurikens at Naruto. This time, Naruto moved. But not by much, only enough to escape the weapons that soared harmlessly behind him.

Not deterred, Kankuro took out a kunai with a note on it and threw it at Naruto who again dodged it easily. But instead of flying behind him like the previous shurikens, they exploded in a large puff of smoke, completely covering Naruto in a 10 meters radius. Using the smoke, Kankuro this time, launched senbons that glistened too much to be normal.

Inside the smoke, Naruto had used this opportunity to create an earth clone that got out of it at high speed and hid behind the giant statue representing a ninja with a ram seal. He then sensed the senbons coming at him, as he was familiar with this kind of weapons. Instead of dodging, he put his right hand in a ram seal, and a _Kekkai_ surrounded him, blocking the weapons that fell on the ground harmlessly. Thanks to the cover, no one saw this, and he quickly dispelled it.

Outside the smoke, Kankuro was looking at it anxiously; hoping that at least one of the weapons had touched his target, as a poison was imbibed in each of them. After a moment, the whole room sensed a spike of chakra, just before a wind spear rushed out of the smoke toward Kankuro. The latter jumped to his right, just in time to dodge it, as the spear kept going until it pierced the wall behind. Kankuro then looked back at the cloud of smoke, only to see it get violently pushed outward in a ring pattern, with Naruto at the middle of it, still with the same calm expression.

Kankuro who was still in mid air, put his feet on the ground when Naruto suddenly inclined his body as if he was about to move, then vanished, shocking many in the room because of his speed. Kankuro didn't even have time to register what was going on before his opponent appeared behind him, and slammed the bottom of his right foot on the object behind on his back. The kick was strong enough to project Kankuro toward the statute in the room.

Kankuro was trying to regain his bearing, while flying toward the statue, when the clone created earlier by Naruto got out of his hiding place and using his kunai, cut through the bindings holding the long object to his back before slamming his palm on him, sending him far away from it.

The sand team looking at this were a little unnerved.

'_Does he knows about Kankuro's puppet? But how? He never used it before in Konoha_' Temari thought surprised. While the Konoha ninjas were confused by Naruto's choice of action.

In the arena, while the first Naruto stayed away from the fight, the earth clone ran toward the object on the ground, completely disregarding Kankuro's downed form, to the surprise of many. But before he could get too close, a hand, more precisely a human hand moved outside of the object wrapped in bindings, showing that it was encased with blue chakra and strings were connected to the Kankuro downed across the two fighters. As fast as it happened, he stood up and launched himself at the incoming Naruto, intercepting him.

The clone seeing this, punched Kankuro in the face, but it was blocked as the latter put his forehands in the path of the punch. Then several other arms erupted from Kankuro's body and caught the clone in a grappling move, stopping his movements.

Then to the shock of those who hadn't understood yet, the real Kankuro got out of the object on the ground, showing to everyone that he was a puppet controller. Then before long, the newly revealed puppet in the form of Kankuro, wrapped the clone strongly enough to make him dissolve in mud, showing that it was an earth clone. All of this while the real Naruto was looking at him with an impassive look.

Kankuro finally turned to look at his opponent.

"How did you know?" he asked with surprise in his eyes. But no answer came.

"It doesn't really matter anyway. Since you forced me to reveal _Karasu_, I won't hold back anymore."

Suddenly, the newly named Karasu, which had removed the skin covering his wooden body, charged at Naruto as fast as it could. Before long he was in front of Naruto and slashed at the latter with his hand, where a glistening knife had appeared. Naruto ducked under the swing and was about to cut Karasu legs off the ground when knives appeared also on said legs, thus halting Naruto's attack.

He jumped back, while dodging the following attacks coming from Karasu, while Kankuro was behind, controlling the movements of the puppet.

"Don't bother. You may be strong taijutsu wise like your teammates but against Karasu, it's reduced to nothing."

The laughter coming from Kankuro drew Naruto's attention, as he kept dodging Karasu wild swipes.

On the balconies, the jounins were a little surprised by the turn of event. Especially Kurenai whom was hoping to see Naruto destroy Kankuro, as she was quickly becoming tired of Temari's taunting.

"Gai, are you sure that he is that dangerous? We haven't seen anything yet that could frighten you so much."

But instead of answering, Gai was just smiling as he looked at Naruto dodging the attacks with utter ease.

'_That is because you have no idea what you should be looking for. After all, it is already happening right in front of your eyes and no one seems to notice it_' he thought while looking intently at Naruto who wasn't even focused on the attacks of the puppet but rather on Kankuro's hand, which controlled the puppet.

On the arena, Naruto had been looking intently at Kankuro's hand as he controlled his puppet, and after a moment, he suddenly jumped backward, creating a wide space between Karasu and him, before he raised his left arm that glowed blue. Then not unlike Kankuro, chakra threads came out of it, and flew across the distance before attaching themselves on Karasu who then stopped moving or rather was fighting to move in two different directions at once, much to the shock of everyone.

Kankuro, looking at this widened his eyes, as he tried to control his puppet but to no avail.

"Move! Move! Damn it" he yelled. Finally seeing that it didn't work as two people were controlling the puppet, he faced Naruto with anger evident in his eyes.

"You! How dare you control my puppet?" He gritted his teeth, angered by the idea of someone else controlling his own puppet. "And where did you learn to use puppet techniques for that matter, asshole?"

This stunned several people in the room, as they knew perfectly well that **_Kugutsu _**or rather the art of manipulating puppets was a hidden technique from Suna. No one outside of the village knew how to use it, as it was a closely guarded secret. So it was normal for them to be surprised to see someone not from Suna, able to use it.

Naruto looked at Kankuro with his threads still connected to Karasu as they battled for the control of the puppet. Finally for the first time since the battle started, he opened his mouth to speak.

"I learned it from you!" he said to the confusion of Kankuro. Seeing the confusion in Kankuro's eyes, he chose to explain a little more.

"While you were unsuccessfully trying to harm me with that puppet of yours, I was using that time to analyze your technique. It seems that the secret of _Kugutsu jutsu _lays in two important steps." He paused to look and saw that everyone was listening attentively to what he was saying.

"The first is obviously the chakra threads that you use. But they aren't simple threads. A communication link would be more appropriate to describe it, as it allows you to transfer simple command to the puppet in the form of thoughts pattern. Thus by simply connecting the link with a part of the puppet body, you can command it to do your bidding. Of course there is the problem of how a piece of wood can interpret such command. That is where the second part of the _Kugutsu jutsu_ comes into play."

"I noticed quickly that there was some sort of seal on every part of the puppet that was connected to the threads. The seal is there to interpret the thoughts sent by the user and move the puppet accordingly. That is how you can control your puppet, isn't it?"

Naruto finished looking at a shocked Kankuro who was gaping like a fish, but then he noticed something in Naruto's explanation and narrowed his eyes.

"Even if you somehow learned about the mechanism behind this kind of jutsu, you still shouldn't be able to replicate the chakra threads like that. After all it is not a…" He was stopped by Naruto finishing is sentence.

"… Simple chakra string?" Naruto smiled there. "Indeed it isn't. I suppose that is why no one outside of Suna has been able to replicate it yet. To make a thread able to transfer the thought of the user, one need to create a jutsu specifically designed for it and that requires several handseals. Since you didn't use any to do so, I will assume that it is mandatory in Suna and to all practitioners of this art, to learn how to activate this jutsu without using handseals so as to not give away the means to copy it." He said further stunning Kankuro by his deductive ability.

"But against someone like me, it is meaningless. The moment I understood how the jutsu worked and his purpose, I was able to replicate it without too much difficulty." He finished to a silenced hall, as no one found it in himself to speak after what they learned.

Gai hearing this smirked a little as he was already aware of this little fact. And like he predicted, one of the jounin looked at him for an answer. Said jounin didn't need to speak for Gai to understand what he wanted to know. Taking a deep breath, he spoke while still looking at the arena.

"In this world, there exists two kind of ninjas. The normal one, able to reach normal standard after decade of training and the abnormal ones often termed as 'prodigies', as they are able to reach untold level very quickly. But the truth is that even among the prodigies, there exist three kinds of ninja."

"The first type is the **gifted**. Those are merely the ones that progress far more quickly than the normal ninjas. If trained properly, those are the ones that rise through the rank at a fast pace. But even then, most of them can be termed as genius of hard work as they train more and are more dedicated than the normal ninja. Kakashi can be an example of this kind of ninja." Gai said as he looked pointedly at Kakashi who nodded simply and waited for the next part of his explanation like everyone within hearing range.

"The second type can be called the **prodigies**. These ones, like the gifted, progress far more quickly than the normal ninjas. But unlike them, they usually have one or two fields where they are extremely gifted, to the point of understanding and mastering the field so easily that you would think that they have done it all their life. An example of this kind of ninja would be the sannin as each of them was very powerful in their chosen field." Again the jounin nodded as they knew that the sannin were tremendously powerful when it comes to their chosen field with Tsunade in the medical field, Jiraiya in the Fuuinjutsu field and Orochimaru in the Ninjutsu field.

"Finally the last category, the **geniuses**. There is maybe only one genius for each generation as they simply are unlike any ninjas in every sense of the term. They are the kind of ninja that simply understand every field existing as easily as a prodigy. Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, taijutsu, you name it, and they will understand it to such an extent that you would find it absurd."

"I told you all of this because you first needed to understand clearly the difference between them, for you to perfectly understand just why I was frightened by Naruto's skills. And if you haven't made the connection yet, then it is simple. Naruto belongs to the **geniuses **category."

He finished shocking the whole room to silence as they were digesting what had been said and coming to term with it. After all, they have just learned that there existed someone that could potentially master every ninja abilities – except those needing bloodlines – that existed out there. And they had already witnessed said person put into action his ability by replicating a hidden jutsu like nothing.

In the arena, Kankuro was trying with all his might to get back his control over Karasu but the more this struggle was going on, the more he realised that it was him that was losing ground. He chanced a glance at Naruto and widened his eyes when he saw the latter with his right hand in the ram seal. A memory appeared at the front of his mind where he saw Naruto use the same seal to create a _Kekkai _that surrounded his target. Knowing what was surely going to happen, he jumped to his left hoping to dodge whatever attack was sure to come.

But nothing happened, surprising him.

Kankuro looked back at Naruto, only to see him in the same position with threads coming from his left hand. It was then that he noticed that by trying to dodge whatever imaginary attack, he relinquished control of his puppet. '_Oh shit!_'. He thought before his eyes widened as he saw his puppet charge towards him.

The situation was now reversed has Kankuro was weaving around the attack of his own puppet. He was ducking or sidestepping several blows that would have gravely damaged him. After a while, he used chakra threads to reconnect with his puppet like Naruto had done before, but Naruto saw this, and quickly moved the puppet out of the way before using one of the hidden weapons of Karasu.

The puppet's palm opened to show a launcher with senbons loaded in it. The senbons were fired at a wide-eyed Kankuro with such force that by the end of it, he looked like a porcupine.

But at the surprise of many, Kankuro disappeared in a puff of smoke, being replaced by a chunk of earth, signalling his use of _Kawarimi_. At the same time, Kankuro charged at Naruto having appeared behind him. Seeing this, Naruto moved the puppet back toward him, hoping to intercept his opponent.

It wasn't long before Karasu was by Naruto's left and Kankuro was a few meters in front of Naruto. Then Kankuro smirked at that.

"You think that I wouldn't take into account the possibility of someone stealing my puppet?" He yelled while moving through handseals and stopping at the Tora seal.

"_Activate_**.**" He said while jumping backwards and reveled in the fact that he saw the surprise and shock in Naruto's eyes just before the puppet violently exploded beside him.

Gai looked at this in surprise, not expecting Naruto's opponent to be that pragmatic to the point of sacrificing what could be his best trump card like that. The spectators mirrored his expression too, not having expected this turn of event.

While waiting for the dust to settle, Kankuro looked at it with a growing smirk. '_This will make him regret underestimating me._'

Finally the smoke was lifted and he looked at the little crater that was formed, searching for his opponent's remains. The only thing left was the burned remains of Naruto's jacket. Kankuro seeing this searched the whole room for his opponent all the while hoping that Naruto had at least sustained a grievous wound from the explosion.

It was then that he heard a gasp of surprise among the spectators. He looked at the person and saw that it was coming from his sister Temari whom was looking at the ceiling with shock freely displayed on her otherwise impassive face. Like everyone in the room, he looked at the ceiling, looking for what could surprise his sister that much. And what he saw surprised him also.

Because, standing upside down, with his feet on the ceiling, was his opponent. Having lost his jacket in the fire below. He was only wearing his sleeveless shirt that showed his muscled arms. That in fact is what shocked Temari. Naruto's arms were very muscled. Not overly so, but enough that the muscle were clearly defined and showed how tightly packed they were.

To understand the surprise, you will need to first know that because of the overuse of chakra to increase physical prowess in the ninja world, few people were that muscled. Of course they were fit, but they usually didn't work hard enough to become like that. As with the help of chakra, they could increase their strength to 3 times that of a normal muscle. So to see a ninja that fit means that he worked very hard physically. Thus would have a better increase in strength than the other ninja.

Gai also looked shocked at what he saw, if the surprise displayed on his face was anything to go by.

'_So that is why despite the training Lee did, he couldn't match him physically? He must be training more than I give him credit for, to have gotten that kind of body_.'

Naruto was looking at Kankuro a little peeved by the turn of the event.

'_He just had to destroy my jacket. And it was my favourite one, damn._'

He looked at his opponent that had lost his smirk after discovering that he escaped the blast without a scratch other than the lost of his jacket.

'_This Kugutsu jutsu is very interesting. I'm not sure that this Suna nin realise the possibilities of this jutsu yet. To be able to create a communication link is nothing short of marvellous. I wonder what would happen if I were to use this on a real person_.'

A gleam suddenly appeared in his eyes that would have frightened even Orochimaru if he knew what the gleam meant. After all, he always had that look whenever he was about to test a new idea whether it was reckless or not.

Knowing that he needed to be close to his target, for his test to work, he observed the surrounding arena for just a moment before he looked back at Kankuro, then he acted.

Everyone was looking at Naruto rooted on the ceiling when he suddenly disappeared, leaving a dented ceiling behind. Kankuro looked everywhere for his opponent, panicking more and more, when the latter appeared a few meter to Kankuro's left, before disappearing again. Then the same happened to Kankuro's right, and a few other places around him. Then Naruto finally appeared behind him in a punching position.

"_Futon : Reppusho_"

A gust of wind was expelled from his hand in Kankuro's direction. The latter seeing this did the only thing he could with his limited options. He _Kawarimi-ed_ to safety by using a chunk of earth the size of a log.

But when he appeared, he was greeted with a violent explosion that tore through his body.

Thanks to his reflex and his relative mastery over Kawarimi, he was able to use it again to escape the explosion. Not completely but enough to leave him still able to fight. Unfortunately, the same thing happened at his new position, and like before, he used the same jutsu to escape.

After the fifth explosion, he was grievously wounded with blood leaking from his arms and forehead. Unfortunately, where he appeared, Naruto was there and quickly used his surprise to take hold of his right arm, before giving a palm strike to the wrist, then the elbow and finally the shoulder. Each time, breaking the articulation, rendering the arm useless and Kankuro screaming in agony at the quick and precise destruction of his right arm.

It happened so fast that few saw all the strikes, before they saw Kankuro kneeling on the ground holding his broken arm, clearly in pain.

While Naruto appeared about 10 meters behind him, the genins, not having understood what happened, looked at their sensei for an explanation. Asuma, who for once didn't have a cigarette in his mouth, was quick to oblige.

"Some of you must not have seen this, but while Naruto seemed to have disappeared from the room, he was in fact placing several explosive seals under each chunk of earth that could be used for Kawarimi. He knew that with Kankuro's puppet destroyed, the latter wouldn't be able to do anything other than use this jutsu to escape, so he planed for the whole thing until Kankuro appeared at the last chunk of earth where he then proceeded to break his whole right arm."

He finished and wasn't surprised to see shocked faces from the genins. Even Shikamaru seemed shocked by that. He was looking at Naruto with curiosity and apprehension. '_He devised such strategy in this short amount of time and was able to apply it perfectly. He even planned for the different actions that his opponent could take. Now I understand the difference between me and him_.'

A shudder ran through his spine as he thought of the conclusion he came to. '_Unlike me who need some time to design my strategy, he is able to make them on the spot, and even take into account several scenario at the same time. This boy, he IS dangerous!_'

Naruto looked at the downed form of Kankuro and shaped his chakra mentally, to use the chakra threads like before. Instead of several threads, only one was formed this time and went toward Kankuro before connecting with the closest Tenketsu from Kankuro's brain, thus establishing a link between Kankuro and Naruto's mind. But he didn't take into account the fact that the link allowed communication in both directions. So it was not surprising that a rush of images and information came to Naruto and Kankuro's mind, shocking them both.

This information was in fact the memories of Kankuro in Naruto case, and Naruto's memories in Kankuro case.

Thanks to the fact that Naruto connected the thread to a Tenketsu close to Kankuro's brain, he was able to get complete details of everything that Kankuro knew about. But it wasn't the same for the latter, as the connection in Naruto was established on hand. Kankuro was only able to see glimpse of what Naruto saw and did since he was born – of course only what the target remembered –.

The spectators were surprised to see the two opponents put one knee on the ground in Naruto case, and two knees when it comes to Kankuro. Their eyes were blank as if they weren't focused on anything and had lost consciousness. Murmurs were heard all around as they were asking themselves what was going on and were waiting anxiously for what would happen next.

Naruto was in a strange world as everything around him was white, except in front of him, where he was seeing the live of his opponent, in great details. He saw the way Kankuro grew up. He saw how he begins training in _Kugutsu_ very earlier in his carrier. He saw the interaction between the members of the Kazekage family. Thanks to this, he learned everything about Suna and information that wouldn't have been easily gained by a spy. He even saw the whole meeting the council and key members of Suna had in preparation of the invasion of Konoha.

Meanwhile, Kankuro was too in his own world and like Naruto's everything was white while in front of him were images of Naruto's life.

_He saw Naruto in a strange compound surrounded with a wide plain that couldn't exist in Konoha._

_He saw Naruto training in a strange room were holographic images were displayed._

_He saw Naruto learning about his hidden bloodline, the Bunsekigan or analytical eye._

_He saw Naruto learning his second bloodline, the Namikaze bloodline allowing him to use Kekkai jutsu._

_He saw Naruto meeting with someone with bandages covering his eye and arm._

_He then saw just how Naruto learned to use puppetry by using his analytical eye to thoroughly analyze and replicate the technique._

Then the image stopped and he came back to the real world, slowly regaining consciousness. The first thing he noticed was that Naruto was still unconscious and then he looked at himself and saw his state.

'_This isn't good. If what I saw are really his memories then there is only one thing that I can do now. Because let's face it, there is no way he will let me survive with the information I got from those flashes of memories_.'

The onlookers were stunned to see Kankuro regain control of his body.

"Look, Kankuro woke up." Sakura said while pointing at the sand nin. Kakashi who had long stopped reading his book, looked at this with narrowed eyes.

"I wonder what happened!"

Baki was looking at Kankuro with fear in his eyes. He, like the others sand nins were observing the fight since the beginning and knew that Kankuro wouldn't win this fight.

'_Not only does this Namikaze hasn't shown anything other than excellent taijutsu and good use of strategy, but also Kankuro has lost his puppet. And like most of our puppeteer, he is no good without his puppet_.'

He looked at his student to see Temari clenching her fist around the rail in obvious panic. He couldn't blame her though, as the situation was quickly deteriorating. He knew that the only reason Kankuro hadn't given up yet was because he was trying to find something that could be used against the Namikaze.

'_But it isn't working at all_.'

It was at that moment that he saw Kankuro turn around and look at them. He was shocked to see a look he hadn't yet seen in his eyes.

A look of resignation.

It took him a moment to understand why the look, as he saw Kankuro use a coded signal directed at them. Seeing the code, he widened his eyes in fright as he decoded it in less than a second, as the signal was something that was instilled into any high ranked ninjas, and was among the highest priority in the orders one could receive.

He wasn't surprised to heard a gasp of shock coming from Temari and to see even Gaara uncross his arms and look cautiously at his brother.

_After all, Kankuro just gave them the order to retrieve whatever information he gained and would give them at all cost. _

Even at the cost of his own life.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Cliffhanger. My first one in a story. This deserves a party yeah! lol.

So what do you think will happen to Kankuro in the next chapter? Will he be able to give whatever information he gained from Naruto, to his siblings? What did Naruto learn from those memories? And what of the spectators?

If you want to know, wait for the next chapter lol.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed Naruto's fight or the first part, as it isn't over yet. See you next time.


	5. A Wake Up Call

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto or Kekkaishi. It is the propriety of Kishimoto and ? respectively.

Hello everybody. I come again with the next chapter of Naruto the true ninja. I hope you will like the end of the fight between Naruto and Kankuro. So I am waiting for your comments.

Also thank you all for the comments you left after readin my story. And I don't know if I already said this, but the reason this story isn't in the crossover category is that there won't be any characters from Kekkaishi. Not yet anyway. And when this happens (if this happens), it wil be in a sequel. So please, stop asking me to put it in the crossover category.

But I am rambling right now. I will just let you enjoy this chapter.

Edited: 05/12/2013

* * *

**Chapter 5: ****_A wake up call_**

* * *

Silence. That is all there was to it. The whole room was silent as they observed the fighters in the arena. No one uttered a word, not even a whisper. The tension was simply too high. It felt like an atrocious event would happen if someone were to break this crushing silence.

Currently in the arena, among the fighters, only one of them was 'conscious'. The other was in a state akin to unconsciousness but they couldn't say. They were too far away to really know after all. The unconscious one, Naruto, was kneeling on the ground with his eyes hidden behind his hairs.

Meanwhile, Kankuro was quickly rummaging through his pocket looking for something. The way his hands were shaking showed that he was still shocked by whatever he had witnessed. This in turn stirred the curiosity of the spectators, as they couldn't imagine what could make him act like that.

A moment later, he finally found the scroll he was looking for. It was a blank one with nothing on it. The scroll was of medium size and looked deceptively common. But no one questioned the strangeness of Kankuro's behaviour.

He laid the scroll on the ground and kneeled before it. Then he moved through handseals at a sedated pace, careful not to mess up the jutsu. Before long, he finished and placed his left hand on his forehead, while he put the right hand on the blank scroll and muttered.

"_Ninpo : Chishiki no iten_"

No one heard him pronounce the name of the jutsu fortunately as they would immediately understand what the jutsu did. Unlike the Konoha contingent, the sand team knew of the jutsu as they recognized the handseals used. The jutsu was one that existed in every shinobi village, but in different forms, thus the reason the Konoha ninjas didn't recognize it.

This jutsu was used as an information gathering technique as it allowed the user to convert his knowledge in words and transfer it on a support. The support here being a blank scroll. This meant that Kankuro was currently transferring whatever information he gained, on the scroll. The sand team now knew that they had to retrieve that scroll at all costs once Kankuro was done.

The problem though was that the jutsu while not demanding except in chakra control and mental visualization was long to perform. They could only hope that whatever state Naruto was in would last long enough.

Tension was high for the members of the sand team. Temari was tightly gripping the railing to calm herself. The others were the same as they were trying to steel their nerves. Only two minutes had passed since Kankuro started using his jutsu but for them, it felt like a whole month had passed. Sweat was rolling down from their faces as they looked at Kankuro intently. Every second that passed was a torture for them.

'_Common Kankuro, hurry up._' Temari thought in frustration.

Baki was praying whatever deity existed out there, for Kankuro to finish before his opponent was up.

Unfortunately, it wasn't to be as a few meters away from the kneeling Kankuro, Naruto's gasped for air as if he had been under water for a very long time.

* * *

On the other part of the arena, Naruto slowly breathed in and out, trying to calm himself. He was still shocked by the effects of the jutsu. Even in his wildest dreams, he wouldn't have thought that it would work like that. Yes… maybe getting a glimpse of the target's memories but not his whole life, not at all. That was just too much information all at once.

Even right now he hadn't assimilated everything he saw. And he wasn't sure that he wanted to. After all, he didn't want to mess with his own memories. So he resolved himself to remove those memories from his mind, once this tournament was over. Right now though, he had more important matters to deal with. Like the fact that his opponent had also made use of the link to retrieve some information from his mind. He didn't know what exactly but if his understanding on how the jutsu worked was good, then it was just a few glimpse of his memories, not his whole life.

'_I should have know not to trust a jutsu created by someone else. They didn't see the flaws in it because it was used on puppet only. If not, they would have seen that the link wasn't unidirectional, but bidirectional as in allowing the user and the target to send or retrieve thoughts pattern to one another._'

He berated himself for getting carried away like that. But what is done is done. He said to himself.

Finally he slowly raised his head, showing again his eyes to the world. The first person he looked at was Kankuro. The latter was in a strange position with one of his hands on a scroll that was glowing with chakra. Gathering chakra, he moved it behind his eyes to activate his dojutsu to understand what was going on.

'_Let's see, chakra is going through his mind, precisely in the prefrontal cortex, were the memories are stored. The chakra then navigates through Kankuro's body until it reaches his right hand. Then it's transformed in words, before being stored in the scroll. That means… fuck! He is transferring his memories to that scroll._'

This alarmed him immediately as he knew that Kankuro was surely trying to pass on the knowledge to someone. He couldn't have that. He narrowed his eyes at Kankuro who finally broke his concentration and looked at him in the eyes.

If Kankuro wasn't forced to stay still, he'd have taken a backward step because of the glare that Naruto was sending him.

'_He must have used his dojutsu to understand what I'm doing. Shit!_'

Shit indeed, as Naruto slowly rose from the ground having regained complete control of his emotions and body. He knew that he had to stop Kankuro from giving up the fight. As that would allow his opponent to get enough time to finish copying the information.

'_I wonder why he didn't give up immediately after he regained consciousness. But that was his mistake._'

He moved through handseals and he looked in front of him, invisible to everyone but he, as seals of some kind were taking shape. Using his dojutsu he was able to interpret the shape and read words like '_wind_', '_increase_', '_density_', '_block_', '_sound vibration_'. When he stopped the handseals, the chakra had taken a form that Naruto could read not unlike a sentence. He parted his hands before looking at Kankuro who was about to speak.

"PROCTOR, I…"

He never finished as Naruto slammed the palm of his hands together, in a prayer position. A shockwave was generated by the action. But other than that, nothing seemed to have happened.

Hayate was looking intently at Kankuro, as the latter was about to say something to him. He had an idea of what said genin wanted to say but couldn't step in. After all, he could be wrong. There was no reason to risk the integrity of this fight because he had a hunch after all. But like the other ninjas in the room, he was surprised when Kankuro seemed to be yelling at him in particular, but no sound was coming from his mouth. He didn't know why but he had an inkling that it was the result of whatever jutsu Namikaze used earlier.

In the arena, Naruto looked at Kankuro as the latter was yelling himself horse, trying to get the proctor to stop the fight, but nothing seemed to happen. Seeing his dismay, Naruto took pity on him and decided to explain just what was going on.

"Don't bother." Immediately, Kankuro stopped and looked at Naruto. "The jutsu I used earlier create something like a dome around us, that block any sound from going through."

Kankuro widened his eyes at that. '_Why didn't I think of giving up earlier? Granted it wouldn't have stopped him from seeking me out to kill me, but it'd have given me enough time to pass on this information._'

He took a deep breath and looked again at his teammates and his teacher, before making another coded signal to get them to begin the operation. '_He may have stopped any sounds from going through but there are other ways of communication._' He thought smugly, thinking he wasn't the only one between the two to have made a mistake.

But the smug expression on his face vanished as quickly as it appeared as he turned around and saw Naruto looking at him with glowing blue eyes.

Time seemed to slow down around Naruto as he looked around and focused. He hadn't wanted to show this to anyone just yet, but like they said, desperate times call for desperate measures. It wasn't that he was somehow controlling time or whatever nonsense. It was just one of the abilities that allowed his father to use so effectively his speed.

By using chakra to control the neurons network of the body, one could increase his reaction speed so much that for him, time seemed to slow down, while in fact, his mind was just working so fast that he perceived everything extremely quickly. Of course using something like that was dangerous for the body. One could increase his overall reaction so much that he would become trapped in a world where everything was still and his body and mind were unsynchronized to the point of being unable to control his body. Also to even attempt something like this, you needed a good understanding of the human body. Precisely the neurons network. Also a very high chakra control.

Naruto looked in front of himself. His target was in a direct line and was motionless. He analyzed his surrounding. His mind cataloguing every action those in the rooms could take, taking into account what abilities he knew they possessed and even the ones he guessed. He finally simulated several possible scenarios in his mind before coming with the best way to handle this. Then, he inclined himself in a ready position.

In everyone's eyes, he propelled himself toward Kankuro at high speed. A speed that rivaled the one used earlier by Lee when he used the chakra gates. But unlike Lee, no sound was heard. No shockwave was formed.

Everything was perfectly controlled.

While moving toward his target, Naruto saw a glimpse of Kankuro's sensei moving at high speed to intercept him. He focused on the chakra that came out of Baki's feet. '_He is using wind natured chakra to propel himself faster than what should be normal. But there is too much flaws in it._'

Baki quickly intercepted Naruto and grinned, as he knew that at the speed Naruto was moving, he wouldn't be able to stop himself in time. So he readied his right hand, preparing himself to punch Naruto so hard that the genin would think that nighttime came earlier with the amount of stars he would be seeing.

But that was without counting on Naruto's surreal deceleration.

Indeed, Naruto's speed went from high level to motionless almost instantly. Then he changed direction, before going back to high level. This had for effect, of creating what seemed like several ghosts of Naruto. These ghosts confused Baki greatly but having no choice, he still punched one of them, hoping that it was a real one.

His hand went through Naruto showing that it was a ghost.

Before he could do anything else, the real Naruto appeared again in front of him, his back facing Baki. Naruto took hold of the outstretched arm then used his right foot to sweep Baki's feet from the ground. With Baki having lost his balance, he used Baki's arm to throw him above his shoulder in an ippon move.

Before Baki could touch the ground, Naruto let go of the arm and delivered a straight kick in his chest area. The kick was hard enough to propel Baki toward the wall behind Naruto as the latter once again vanished toward Kankuro.

The moment the jounins saw Baki move to intercept Naruto, they also moved to stop whatever the sand jounin was trying to do. But a sudden unnatural pressure fell on them, completely stopping their movements. Having felt the pressure several times already, they turned to look at the spot occupied by their hokage and showed their surprise when the latter made a move of the hand, prompting them to stand down for now. They didn't know why Sarutobi did that, but he was their hokage so they listened to him and held their position, waiting for the right time to intervene.

They were shocked though when they saw how quickly Naruto dispatched the jounin and the unnatural speed he showed. This further established the legend that was slowly being created around him.

Naruto, still moving toward Kankuro, looked ahead of himself and saw a wall of sand that had formed, blocking his path toward his target. But that didn't surprise him as he had predicted such thing. So without even stopping, he held his right hand in the ram sign.

"_Ketsu._"

A bluish cube materialized around the sand. He looked at the balcony where the sand team was positioned and did the same gesture, before another cube quickly surrounded Gaara. The latter widened his eyes in shock, not having expected such move. But before Gaara could do anything, Naruto made another gesture with his right hand. "_Metsu._"

The two cubes violently imploded, shocking the onlookers.

Not having stopped, Naruto passed through what was left of the sand shield. Indeed the sand was reduced to a state of dust that slowly fell on the ground. During all of this, Naruto hadn't stopped moving even once.

Kankuro finally rose from the ground having finally finished transferring the knowledge into the scroll. He knew what was going on. Even though he hadn't been looking at the fight, he had been able to get glimpse of Baki being sent to the far wall, and Gaara being surrounded by that damnable Kekkai of his opponent. He sincerely hoped that his little brother was fine, but knew that he didn't have time to worry. Thanks to the distraction, Naruto had stopped sustaining whatever jutsu he had used to stop sound from getting out of the arena. So he looked at Temari.

"Temari, catch!"

He immediately threw the scroll in Temari's direction and saw how the latter jumped from her position, toward the scroll. After all the longer the scroll was in mid air, the less secure it was.

But it was without counting on Naruto's resourcefulness.

Once Naruto saw Kankuro throw the scroll, he knew that he had to act. He didn't know what Temari would do with the scroll once she got it. Maybe she had a jutsu that would send it directly to her superior or something else. In the ninja world, you had to expect the unexpected. That was one lesson he had learned years ago.

With that in mind, he suddenly stopped himself. He looked at the flying scroll and quickly using a jutsu he was becoming fond of.

"_Ketsu._"

A cube surrounded the flying scroll. Instead of the normal cube, this one stretched toward the ground. That is why the scroll was falling toward the ground now.

Temari seeing this channelled as much wind natured chakra as she could on her fan and slammed it on the barrier. The result was immediate as the barrier was broken. She smirked in triumph and reached with her hand toward the scroll.

But the victory was short lived.

A thin thread of energy was fastened around the scroll before it was pulled back toward Naruto. She looked at Naruto and saw that the thread was coming from his palm. She couldn't help the cry that came from her mouth.

"FUCK YOU NAMIKAZE!"

The concerned didn't even bat an eyelash as he was concentrating on the scroll that was coming toward him. It was then that he fell or rather saw something with his dojutsu activated, the chakra that suddenly surrounded the scroll. The chakra was transformed in a magnetic field. He looked around and saw the same field on an object close to the area where the hokage and his advisors stood.

_'Kawarimi_…' He thought in surprise, as he knew that the field that appeared around the scroll was the first part of that jutsu. Few people knew how that simple jutsu really worked, but those that did could do amazing stuff with the jutsu. But it wasn't time to think about it as he reacted accordingly and created another Kekkai around the scroll.

The Kekkai creating a dimension of its own inside the cube was able to cut the connection between the two objects and thus stop the jutsu. But not taking any chances, he made the cube explode, completely destroying the scroll and stopping anyone from ever learning what was inside it. With that completed he looked again at Kankuro who was on the ground breathing heavily and looking back at Naruto in fright.

Again, one of the reasons the _Chishiki no iten_ wasn't used so lightly was the fact that the chakra consumption depended heavily on the amount of knowledge being transformed, and was stressful for the mind. Knowing this, it wasn't surprising for Kankuro to be on the ground, as he didn't have an enormous pool of chakra to begin with.

Not wasting anytime, he again vanished toward Kankuro to get rid of the last source of information that someone could use. A few meters away from Kankuro, Baki again intercepted Naruto. He managed to get his bearing back and was now out for blood.

Preferably Naruto's blood.

He was using one of the hidden jutsu Suna was famous for, the _wind step_. It allowed those that had mastered their wind affinity, to propel themselves from one direction to another, even in mid air.

Using this, Baki moved in zigzag pattern in mid air, before appearing in front of Naruto and kicking him. Like earlier, the only thing Baki kicked was a ghost, as Naruto appeared under Baki not unlike Lee and delivered a straight upward kick, propelling Baki toward the ceiling. Instead of letting him go he crouched down before propelling himself toward the airborne Baki and appeared underneath him.

He was about to continue his attack when Baki used his wind step to move several times in a static sound. He moved in a square pattern before appearing under Naruto and punched him in the face.

This time the attack touched Naruto.

But instead of stunning him, a ghost like image of Naruto formed and rotated on himself before delivering a brutal straight kick with his right leg. Then another image appeared and this time a left kick was shot at Baki who was too stunned to dodge it. Baki was propelled toward the ground at high speed and created a crater on the impacted area.

While still airborne, Naruto looked at Kankuro and moved through one-handed seals before stopping and pointing his index finger at Kankuro's head.

"_Futon : Kussaku yubi_."

A mini ringed shockwave exploded around Naruto's finger, as what seemed like a laser erupted from his finger and moved too fast for Kankuro to dodge. The result was stunning.

Kankuro's head was pierced with such force that it exploded.

Naruto had targeted the head because that was the part of the body that was used to retrieve information on dead ninja. He knew this because he was a medic.

Silence descended again in the room as what Naruto did shocked everyone. Not only had he killed someone, but he did so in cold blood. And when they assimilated what happened in the few seconds since he woke up, they came to the conclusion that it was his goal all along.

He hadn't killed Kankuro to win this fight. No! He did so to stop him from giving whatever was inside that scroll to his teammates. They could only wonder what had been inside it that could have been so important.

Suddenly, killer intent was felt around the room. Every gaze quickly converged on Baki who was looking at Naruto with murder in his eyes. Like before he disappeared with a static sound and appeared above Naruto just as the latter touched ground. He quickly formed a wind blade and swung it at Naruto who was too late to dodge.

Baki smirked maliciously as the blade touched Naruto, but his arm was suddenly stopped. He heard someone whisper in his ears.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

The voice was strangely calm, deceptively so. It showed only one thing to Baki, that a great danger lurked behind the owner of that voice. He knew that whatever he did, he wouldn't be able to kill Naruto with the amount of Konoha jounins inside the room. So he chose to calm himself. He looked behind him to see Kakashi standing there, and stopping his arm from moving further.

'_The legendary copy ninja Hatake Kakashi. He was able to move from the balcony to here in just a split second. And going by his arm strength, he is strong too. I see that his legend is well deserved._'

He thought frustrated to admit that against the ninja behind him, he stood no chance at all. He finally turned around to look at the Namikaze, hoping to see at least a deep gash on the bastard arm. But like everyone in the room, he was shocked to see Naruto disperse like a breeze. They looked around the room to find him, but to no avail.

It was only about 10 seconds later that they saw him sitting at the edge of the giant statue in the room, looking as calm as ever, as if he didn't just take the life of another human being. This behaviour frightened the onlookers a little. Even the Konoha contingent, as this behaviour reminded them of Uchiha Itachi and that didn't sit well with them.

Finally, Hayate spoke again.

"Seeing as one of the fighters is dead, I declare Namikaze Naruto the winner of this fight."

But no one was listening to him as they were looking at Kankuro's body. Temari was beside him, looking at the body with frozen eyes. Gaara was standing behind her, having recovered from Naruto's earlier attack. He was glaring fiercely at Naruto. Not really because of Kankuro's death, but because he did something no one had ever done before.

He destroyed the link he possessed with his sand.

Earlier, when Naruto had exploded the sand contained in the cube, it also destroyed the youkai energy contained in it. Thus making the special material nothing more than normal sand, if not more dust like. This alarmed him, as that mean Naruto would be able to cut the control he had with his sand. Something that was unacceptable. He was beginning to understand just why other Suna nins were bothered by the existence of a Namikaze heir. If that bloodline of his were what allowed him to do that, then he would forever curse the Namikaze for it.

He saw in the corner of his eye, Baki moving toward them. He then noticed that Temari was shaking more and more. As if he was diviner, he correctly guessed what was to come next.

Temari was looking at Kankuro unmoving body in shock. She didn't think that one of them could die in this mission. After all, they were always praised back home as the strongest team Suna had ever produced. They were strong. That was something she knew to be true. So her shock wasn't unfounded when she came across a genin that was so out of their league that he made them – her at least – feel inferior.

It was a new feeling to her. She had trained since an earlier age to be strong. Her father would accept nothing less. She had endured the harsh training. Everything that was throws at her. And she had succeeded. That was why she was arrogant like that. She couldn't think of another genin that had trained like her. But one person made all her beliefs crash down like a house of cards.

That person was Namikaze _fucking _Naruto.

The proof laid unmoving on the ground beside her. As she was looking at Kankuro, flash of all the moments they passed together appeared in front of her, the good and the bad ones. She finally accepted that her brother was gone forever.

Then came the feeling of hate. She looked around the room and only saw smirks in the face of the Konoha jounins. She knew that none of them liked her or her team. Especially with how much she taunted them during this exam. In retrospect, she may have gone a little too far in taunting them in their own home. But that thought was quickly squashed like a bug. Only to be replaced by hate.

Hate against the Konoha jounins and genins.

Hate against the proctor who didn't stop the fight in time.

Hate against the _fucking _hokage who looked at all this without batting an eyelash.

And finally hate against Naruto for killing her brother.

So it wasn't surprising that when she saw Naruto calmly walking toward his teacher, she lost it.

"Everything is because of you. Because of all of you, my brother is dead. I am gonna kill you all. You hear me? All of you. You will be first Namikaze."

She yelled while rushing toward Naruto who was still walking calmly toward his sensei, not even listening to Temari.

Fortunately for Naruto, if one could say that, Baki was able to catch up with Temari and knocked her out before she did something that would cause further problems for them. Considering that they could already charge him for trying to kill an heir of their most prestigious clan outside of a sanctioned battle.

After a few minutes, the calm returned in the room and the hokage took that opportunity to explain to the genins still in the competition that they had one month to prepare for their battle. But not before drawing the battles that would happen during the final part of the chuunins exam. The fights were like this.

Fight N°1: _Inuzuka Kiba _VS _Akimichi Choji_.

Fight N°2: _Namikaze Naruto _VS _Aburame Shino_.

Fight N°3: _Sabaku no Gaara _VS _Uchiha Sasuke._

Fight N°4: _Sabaku no Temari _VS _Nara Shikamaru_.

With the preliminaries done, everyone went back to the village, hoping to rest from the earlier events.

* * *

**KONOHA – ****_NAMIKAZE COMPOUND –_** A DAY LATER –

* * *

Inside the Namikaze's compound, everything was calm, as calm as someone should expect, especially at such an hour. Indeed it was only seven in the morning. Who in their right mind was up and about at such an earlier hour?

Suddenly a sound of something being broken was heard from one of the room.

Okay, maybe there were some people that were up at this hour.

Anyway, Naruto was in the kitchen preparing a breakfast for him. He had taken all the night to rest from the exam he was taking. Certainly he didn't show how tired he really was during the preliminaries, but that was just to keep face. He didn't like to show any kind of weakness to anyone. That is why even when the battle between him and Kankuro was over, he didn't show just how tired he really was.

He may be strong, but even he had his limits. Especially when it came to chakra capacity. With the amount of jutsus he used and the intensity of the fight, he wouldn't have lasted much longer. He knew that it was one of his weaknesses, his chakra capacity. Because of his bloodline – the Namikaze one –, he would never have godly reserve of chakra. He would in time reach Kage level if he trained as much as he did right now, but that wasn't for a long time.

No Namikaze ever had an enormous pool of chakra, except his father. But there was a reason behind that, something that he didn't want to think about because of its ramifications. Because the Kekkai jutsu needed a completely different kind of energy, and was stored in his body, he couldn't have much chakra reserve. Or else he would be sacrificing the space needed to store the energy used for the Kekkai jutsu, which was something he would never do.

Right now, he just finished eating his breakfast, and moved toward one of the room in the compound. The compound was very beautiful. The house was made out of a strong wood. But it was so polished and decorated that you would never notice. There were several rooms inside. But the most beautiful thing about it was the surrounding area.

Because unlike what many would have thought, trees or even other houses didn't surround the compound. Instead a vast plain that stretched without end was surrounding the house. Looking at the landscape you would immediately conclude and rightly too, that the Namikaze's compound wasn't in anyway near Konoha. In fact it wasn't even anywhere on earth.

Simply because it was in another dimension.

But this was for another time. He just reached the bedroom he was after. He took a deep breath before opening the door and went inside it. Once inside, he looked at the center of the room where stood a wide bed surrounded by several devices that could only be found in a medical room. Surrounding the bed were several seals sketched on the ground. And finally on the bed itself laid a beautiful girl with long red hairs. Her visage was pale as if she had never been outside. The body looked frail but not enough to think that she suffered from lack of food. She also wore a white dress that could only be found in hospital.

Naruto looked at her with softened eyes. This was the only place he could let himself express any kind of emotions. He approached slowly, taking care of not disturbing anything and slowly caressed her face.

"Good morning little sister."

He removed some strand of hairs from her eyes so he could see her better.

"There is much I want to tell you today. I hope you don't mind that I didn't come to visit you for six days? But I am here now."

Naruto continued and slowly told her everything that happened during that time. Sometimes he would laugh at a joke or a comment he made. This was a ritual for him, as he always took time to come to her, and explain whatever is it that he did, hoping that she understood him, even though she couldn't react in the real world.

His sister had been like that ever since she was born, as she had been poisoned. She was in a deep slumber or rather a coma like state. Once he was proficient enough in seals, he had put them around her for several purposes. The first and most important one was to take care of her and feed her even when he wasn't there. The second purpose was to make her body grown as if she was alive. So if… not if, but _when_ he finds a cure, she would be in a body in perfect health and not atrophied.

There were several others purposes but they were not as important as the above mentioned. It was an hour later that Naruto finally finished and went outside her room with tears glistening from his eyes, as he really wanted his sister to be healthy. But he would have to first neutralize the poison that was in her body.

With a heavy heart, he closed the door of the bedroom, before going outside of the house. Once there, he went through a few handseals before slamming his palms on the ground. Then in front of him, a door made of strangely moving water formed. He moved through it, and immediately appeared in front of the hokage tower. The moving water behind him quickly disappeared. Around him, civilians looked at him, but other than that they did nothing, as they were already familiar with the way Naruto went to his home, as it was the only way to enter the Namikaze's compound or dimension.

He moved then toward the building in the direction of Sarutobi's office as he had an appointment with the senior ninja. Before long he reached his secretary.

"Excuse me Midori – san, but I have an appointment with the Hokage. Would you kindly make him aware of my presence?"

The secretary blushed as she heard him talk and slowly nodded before going inside Sarutobi's office. Before long, she came back and smiled at him. "He will receive you now Namikaze – sama."

Naruto nodded curtly before moving inside the room.

Sarutobi's office wasn't luxurious or anything, but there was a kind of feel to it that told you that despite not having high costing artifacts or furniture, it still belonged to a refined person. You had to look for it though to notice it.

Once inside, Naruto stood at the ready in front of Sarutobi who was behind his desk. A stack of paperwork placed above his working table. Behind Sarutobi, stood proudly the picture of the precedents hokage, going from the shodaime to the yondaime.

Finally Sarutobi looked up from his work and genially smiled at Naruto.

"Ah Naruto, you finally made it. I hope everything is fine?"

"As well as it could be hokage – sama." Naruto replied.

"Good, good. I hope I didn't bother you from your schedule? I imagine you must have training to do today. What with the finals of the exam coming in a month."

Sarutobi continued while extending his hand toward a free sit in front of him, prompting Naruto to take place there.

"Not at all sir. I am still recuperating from the earlier events. So I won't begin training until much later."

"Can I be curious enough to ask you about the kind of training you will be doing?" Sarutobi asked with barely concealed curiosity. But he was answered in the negative as Naruto politely refused to answer, using as excuse, the need for secrecy. Sarutobi sighed at that but continued.

"You must be curious about why I would want to meet you so soon after the exams?" At Naruto's nod, he elaborated. "It concerns your fights with the late Sabaku no Kankuro." Naruto stayed impassable at that, disappointing Sarutobi who had hoped to see even a glimpse of emotion.

"You are aware that he was the son of the Kazekage. I am sure you know that the fact that you killed him won't be without repercussions."

This time Naruto frowned a little. But let the hokage speak.

"Don't worry, I am not blaming you or whatsoever. What I want to know though is the reason behind your show of brutality."

"If I remember correctly, the rules enunciated by the proctor didn't proscribe the use of lethal attacks."

"I know that my boy. But what I really need is a valuable reason to explain your actions, especially once Kankuro created that scroll of his. Talking about that, what was inside that scroll that would make you resort to such action?"

This time, Naruto looked sharply at Sarutobi, directly in the eyes and without flinching. This was a bold move from his part, as not many dared to look like that at their kage. After all, it was showing your lack of respect for your superior. Something that wasn't very good in the ninjas world.

"I fail to see the need to explain my actions when they were perfectly in accord with the rules of the exams. Concerning the scroll, I have no idea what was inside it, but I chose to dispose of it in case it was a disguised attack on my person." Naruto answered motionlessly, keeping his cold demeanor. Sarutobi of course frowned at the answer, having hoped for more.

"My boy, I was only trying to find a plausible excuse to provide the Kazekage once he comes here for the finals. And do you really don't trust me enough to fill me on what was inside that scroll?"

"Maybe I would be more inclined to trust you if you hadn't chosen to bind me to your will when I was vulnerable, _Hokage – sama._" The last words were said with such hate that Sarutobi shuddered. He dropped his head as if in shame.

"Does one mistake of an old man will really make you distrust me so much? Have I not tried to make amend for my past action?"

"You call that a mistake right now, because I found a way out. Would it have bothered you if I was still under the effect of that seal of yours?" Naruto looked at the silent Kage and nodded to himself. "I didn't think so. Like they said, it is only once they are caught that they try to make amend for their past actions. So you shouldn't be surprised that I would sooner trust your estranged student Orochimaru than you."

Sarutobi recoiled as if struck. He was shocked by the words coming from Naruto and by the fact that he would use such a low blow to hurt him. And hurt, it did. To be compared to Orochimaru was a huge blow to his self-esteem. Not wanting the conversation to deteriorate any further, he nodded at Naruto and dismissed him. The latter just nodded before going out of the room.

'_Now I must seek out Tenten to begin her training._' He thought while moving out, leaving behind a contemplative Sandaime.

But he didn't go far before he was discreetly accosted by an unusual looking anbu. The anbu was walking with such grace that you would think that he took some dancing lessons. Knowing whom the ninja was, Naruto slowed just enough to hear the ninja whisper.

"Leader – sama want to meet you."

As fast as the words were said, the ninja disappeared, leaving Naruto to sigh. '_Why does he want to meet me so soon?_' He thought before changing direction completely and entering a dark alley. Once there, he sank into the ground, disappearing from anyone sight.

* * *

**TOWER IN FOREST OF DEATH – ****_UNKNOW AREA –_**

* * *

A human shape was standing at the edge of a balcony, in a room dimly lighted. The person was looking contemplatively at the sea of trees that stretched beyond the tower. The only sound that could be heard was that of the occasional insects. That was until the person spoke out loud.

"How long are you going to look at me like that?"

The words weren't directed at a person in particular. At least that is what an observer would think. For the person though, he knew perfectly well to whom he was talking to.

A few moments later, another human shape got out of a shadowed corner of the room and slowly walked toward the one who spoke.

"As expected of you, Orochimaru – sama." He stopped just behind the newly named Orochimaru. "For how long?"

"What do you think, Kabuto – kun?"

Kabuto pushed his glass to reposition them. Before he answered.

"I would say ever since I was on this level of the tower."

Orochimaru turned around and looked at Kabuto in the eyes. The latter could see mirth in his master's eyes. And knew that he had guessed wrong. But he wasn't about to guess again. He already knew that Orochimaru would never truthfully answer him, as that was akin to telling another ninja your weakness. After all, by answering this question, Kabuto would then be able to correctly guess Orochimaru's range of detection. He was interrupted from his train of thoughts as Orochimaru spoke again.

"I was beginning to think that you had been caught." This amused Kabuto greatly.

"Do you really think so lowly of my skills?" Orochimaru turned back to look at the forest. "Do you make an effort to show me those skills of yours?" Was his answer.

Kabuto said nothing to that, as he knew that what was said was true. He had never openly displayed his full abilities to Orochimaru or anyone for that matter. That was just a survival reflex that he wasn't ready to part from. Deciding to change the subject, Kabuto asked a question that he was really curious about.

"So, how was your encounter with the Namikaze?"

A long silence was Orochimaru's response. Kabuto was about to speak again, when he was beaten to it.

"He was… interesting to say the least, kukuku." The laugh was full of hidden malice and that made Kabuto shudder a little.

Waiting for more details, Kabuto chose not to talk, until the sannin explained the encounter. He made the right choice as his question was finally answered after a moment.

"While I wasn't able to mark him as one of my followers, I definitively learned several things about him."

"Such as…"

"His personality first and foremost. He is always calm and collected. He never loses his calm even when knowing that he is outmatched. Instead he uses this opportunity to test himself and discover the powers and if possible the weaknesses of his opponent." He looked back at Kankuro. "I should know as he used it against me."

Kabuto gulped a little as he detected a trace of anger in Orochimaru's voice. '_I suppose their encounter didn't went as well as Orochimaru expected_'. Kabuto thought while waiting for his master to continue.

Orochimaru looked back at the forest again, as he continued. "Like you said, he values stealth at least as much as I value Ninjutsu and that is saying something. During our fight, he did everything he could to hide his abilities. And he succeeded for the most part. But like several ninjas before him, he forgot that by showing me just how well he could hide his abilities, he also gave me valuable information about him."

Orochimaru smirked at that. At first he had thought that the brat had bested him, but after looking back at the encounter inside his mind, he was able to discover several abilities of Naruto. Knowing that Kabuto was waiting for him to continue, he spoke again.

"Naruto – kun is well versed in Genjutsu as he was able to trap me in one without my notice. Fortunately, those illusions of his aren't powerful enough to stop a jounin or even chuunin from dispelling them. He uses them during battle to make his target less aware of his surrounding."

"In Ninjutsu, he showed that he was well versed in wind and earth jutsu. And finally, he never fights directly. And that is the most important information you need to know. Always expect him to use clones to fight directly against you, while he hides himself somewhere."

Kabuto nodded and was mentally taking notes of this, in case he ever fought against Naruto.

"Interesting… I will be sure to update my ninjas cards with this new information you provided me. I suppose you already know of what transpired during the preliminary?" Kabuto asked.

"You mean the death of one of the Kazekage brat? Kukuku. I wonder how he will take this death. Only imagining the face he will make upon learning that one of his _'strong'_ children was defeated and killed by another genin is making my day. That will teach that arrogant Kage."

"If I may be bold, why didn't you dispose of him yet?"

"Simple Kabuto – kun, while he is arrogant, he is still he Kage for a reason. At first I wanted to kill him so that I could impersonate him and get close to Sarutobi but with the emergence of so many unknown variables, I prefer to use him as a cannon fodder for the invasion. He may think that he is still in control of the outcome of this invasion, but one way or another, neither the hokage nor the Kazekage will get out of Konoha alive."

Orochimaru laughed out loud. A laugh that sent chills down Kabuto's spine. '_Sometimes I wonder why I work for him. Am I a masochist?_' Kabuto sweat dropped at his line of thoughts. He was asking himself if by hanging around nuts like Orochimaru, his sanity wasn't affected.

He looked at the still laughing Orochimaru and chose to give him what he came here to do. He first wanted Orochimaru to give him a reason to completely betray Konoha but after speaking just a little with his master, he knew that he didn't have any choices at all. It was that or getting killed.

"Anyway, I finally got what you need for the invasion to go smoothly."

He handed Orochimaru a thick black book. The sannin held it with a smirk slowly forming upon his lips. After all, this book just raised the chance of success of the invasion by fifteen percent. And that was nothing to sneeze at. After all, inside the book was the list of Konoha's ninjas and their abilities. Except of course the anbu, as they didn't have any records. They were the only variable now in the village, as only the hokage knew who they were and what their abilities were.

* * *

**HYUUGA COMPOUND – **AT THE SAME TIME –

* * *

While Orochimaru and his subordinate were plotting the destruction of Konoha, another event that would have drastic repercussion was taking place in the Hyuuga households.

The Hyuuga clan is one of the most famous clan from Konoha. Actually they are considered right now as the strongest of the village, because of the massacre of the Uchiha clan who held that position before. Their notoriety mostly comes from their bloodline the Byakugan.

The Byakugan like the sharingan is a dojutsu that allows it user to be able to see very far, and in almost 360 degree around the user. It also allows the user to see through material and particularly to see the tenketsus of a person. The last ability allowed them to create and use their taijutsu style the Jyuken, widely known as one of the most powerful taijutsu style that existed out there.

Because of this, outsiders coveted strongly their bloodline. So to protect it, the Hyuuga put in place the caged bird seal. A seal applied on the branch side of the family to prevent thieves from gaining the bloodline. And also to keep the branch family servant of the main branch, as they could activate the seal and put those with the seal in a pain so terrible that some preferred to kill themselves rather than feeling that kind of pain again.

Hyuuga Hiashi, the current leader of the Hyuuga clan was looking in front of him pensively.

"You knew that this would happen one day." A voice said from behind him. Hiashi didn't turn around because he knew who was talking to him.

"So why are you acting like that?"

Hiashi sighed as he heard the question. "It isn't that I didn't see this coming. Just …" Just what? What could he said? That he knew that this would happen but had hoped that it wouldn't come to pass until much later? Of course he couldn't said that. That was like saying that his eyes were not all seeing. And he liked to think that it was the case, so no, he couldn't say that.

"Just that I am surprised that the elders waited for this long to pull something like that." He finally said, hoping to placate the one he was speaking to. It seemed to work as the latter didn't talk back or refute his claim. And that made him smirk inwardly, knowing that he hadn't lost his touch despite the year of working behind the desk so to say.

"Be that as it may, what are you going to do now then?"

This time, Hiashi turned around and looked at the one that spoke earlier. The one whom stood in front of him was none other than his personal guard and part time advisor. He wore jounin attire and a mask hiding his features. The only things visible were his eyes, through the eyeholes of the mask. It showed pupiless white eyes, the mark of a possessor of the Byakugan.

"I mean, even though you foreseen this, I assume that you didn't think it would happen this earlier."

The man continued, while Hiashi was calmly looking at him in the eye, not even bothered by the dangerous feeling this man projected.

"You assumed right. But that doesn't change any of my plans. Just accelerated them a little."

"So you will let this farce keep going? You will let the elders think they can do whatever they please without repercussion?"

But Hiashi stayed quiet, not answering the questions. Seeing this unnerved Hiashi's guard a little. He thought that at least a fleeting emotion would be visible on his master's face, but nothing was displayed. '_Such mastery over his emotions. No wonder he is that feared as a clan head._' He thought.

Indeed, even among clan members, ninjas were not immune to being backstabbed. Like they said, it's the most unassuming of people that are the most dangerous one. But despite Hiashi's emotionless gaze, he knew that what the elders did behind his master back wouldn't go unpunished.

_After all, organizing a fight between the two daughters of the clan head to determine who would become the clan only heir, and without consulting said clan head, was nothing short of treasonous._

Still, the guard looked at his master one last time and was relieved by what he saw. Because, Hiashi was sporting a smirk that spelled doom for the one who dared to cross him.

**WITH NARUTO – ****_KONOHA – _**UNKNOWN AREA

Walking in what seemed like a cavernous castle, Naruto was contemplating his future plans. Most of them were already in progress. But the one he was most anxious about, was the tests he needed to do to perfect the special seal he had been working on, and finished earlier in the forest of death.

He was distracted from his thoughts when he finally entered a wide room that was more like a hall. In front of him, at the other end of the room, stood proudly a throne like chair, and around it, was several anbu standing in lines. On the chair, was sitting someone whom face was obscured by the darkness. Naruto moved toward the person, until he was standing just in front of him.

"Welcome back Naruto." The person said to Naruto.

"Danzo – san, it has been a long time."

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

I hope you liked this chapter. Next time, several plots will take shape. The story is advancing just like I wanted. See you soon everyone.


	6. Rivalry

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto or Kekkaishi. It is the propriety of Kishimoto and ? respectively.

Hello everybody. I come again with the next chapter of Naruto the true ninja. I know it has been a while but I had several other issues that had priority over this, so I don't have anything to say to this. For those that are waiting for me to update Sylar's bloodline, don't worry, it will be done soon. I will try to be regular in my updates from now on (hopping I won't have any problems in the near future).

Last time on Naruto the true ninja: _We see Naruto fight Kankuro and kills him because the latter was able to learn some of his secrets when their minds were linked. This cause Temari to go ballistic but she is stopped by her sensei before she could act. Also, Naruto was retrieved by a member of 'Root' to have a meeting with Danzo_.

Edited: 05/12/2013

* * *

**Chapter 6: ****_Rivalry_**

* * *

**KONOHA – ****_TRAINING GROUND S3 –_**

Like every ninjas village, Konoha possesses training grounds that can be used by foreigners. This was implemented at the same time that the Chuunins exam was created and for several reasons. The most important one was to give those foreign ninjas the possibility to train during the one-month recess. There is also the fact that if those foreign ninjas were forced to go back to their village to train, then they would expose themselves to attacks from outsiders who want them to lose.

So it was without surprise that the Sand team, now composed of Sabaku no Gaara and Sabaku no Temari, was assigned a training ground for foreigners.

Right now, Gaara was standing at one of the corner of the training ground. He was training for the finals and for the first time, he was motivated. Then again, you would be if you knew that you would fight against someone that could remove or disable your main ability.

In front of him was a mini sea of sand that was floating in the air, almost lazily. He was looking at it intently. For a moment, it was like he was doing nothing. Suddenly, as if someone had cut the string that was sustaining the sand, the sea of sand fell on the ground.

This made Gaara sigh in frustration. It was at that moment that his sensei Baki, decided to appear a few meters away from him.

"How is it going?"

The frustrated look that Gaara send Baki was enough for the latter to know that it wasn't going so well.

"I see. I suppose it should be difficult. After all, you began this training only a day ago. Are you sure it's necessary?"

Gaara grunted in response. He didn't like to speak too much as for him, it was a waste of his energy. Maybe it was also because, in his childhood, he didn't have anyone to talk to, but he didn't care really. He was a loner and was fine with that. Looking at his sensei still gazing at him as if expecting something, he resigned himself to answer the earlier question.

"Like I said earlier and I don't want to repeat myself again." He threw Baki a look that said 'ask me this again and you will be in my hit list'.

"The strange box that Namikaze is able to produce, can and _will_ remove my bijuu's chakra from the sand, should the sand be inside the box when he detonates it. I cannot afford to lose all my sand to this, so I have to learn how to refill the sand with Ichibi's chakra as fast as possible." Seeing his sensei nod at the explanation, he continued.

"While I could try to learn something other than my sand attacks, I won't have enough time to master whatever it is, for it to be meaningful. That is why I have to make do with what I have for now."

Baki nodded slowly, understanding the precarious situation their Jinchuuriki was in. Gaara was supposed to be their trump card after all, but that was before learning of Konoha's own trump card. '_I still wonder how they were able to keep hidden the existence of the yondaime's heir. They deceived the whole world and that make me wonder what else they have hidden._' He thought just before a violent gust of wind passed through Gaara and him.

Fortunately the wind was only powerful enough to raise the dust from the ground, nothing else. Once the dust was settled, he looked at the other side of the training ground where his second and now last student was standing, with her fan completely open.

"How long has this been going on?" He asked Gaara who was also looking at his sister.

"Since I started training."

"And what is she trying to do?"

This time, Gaara looked at him with a cold look upon his features, and without even hearing the answer, Baki knew that he had gone beyond the pale and that Gaara was becoming frustrated from answering his questions. Knowing that a frustrated Gaara was a dangerous person to be around, he decided not to test his luck and chose to ask the question directly to the concerned. So he moved toward Temari.

Temari was standing at the other end of the clearing since the morning. She had been trying to occupy her mind with something other than the sight of her brother's dead body, but that wasn't going very well. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't remove it from her mind. The only moment she had something close to a peaceful mind was when she was out there training.

But even training wasn't helping anymore, as she was trying to come up with techniques that would avenge her brother. Since entering this clearing, she had used her most powerful wind attack over and over again. In front of her, was the form of Namikaze as an imaginary target. This helped her a lot to vent some frustration.

'_When I get my hands on him, I _will_ kill him. Just you wait_' She thought while swinging her fan again, producing an overpowered whirlwind, that shredded the imaginary Naruto. This brought a smile on her face, but it quickly disappeared as she noticed her sensei coming toward her.

She still hadn't forgiven him from stopping her when she tried to kill Naruto during the preliminaries. Of course she knew deep down that she wouldn't have succeeded with so many jounins in the room, but she needed to blame someone or something. In this case, Baki was the scapegoat.

"What do you want?" she snarled at Baki without even looking at him.

The concerned wasn't surprised by the reaction, but ignored it anyway. "Do you want any help for your training?" Like he thought, Temari refused his help, instead she asked a question that surprised him a little.

"What happened to… to Kankuro's body?" She choked at the end, still not having come to term with his death.

Baki sighed at that. "We sent his body back to the village for further analysis" And like he had thought, this made Temari turn her head and look at him with a cold gaze.

"You mean to be dissected, don't you?" Seeing Baking not answering was all she needed to conclude that it was indeed the case. "Not satisfied that my brother had to die trying to get information for the village, but you also have to desecrate his body to retrieve whatever information can be found, have you no shame at all"

She yelled to a wide-eyed Baki. He wasn't shocked by the anger displayed by his charge, but by the shocking thing that was happening around Temari as she become angrier, because the kunais that were discarded around Temari, were slowly bending. It was like the metal somehow became malleable.

Temari finally calmed herself and just turned her back on Baki, and sat on the ground in a meditating pose. Baki knowing that she was dismissing him, chose to retreat, all the while thinking about what happened just a moment ago. _'Is this what I think it is? If that is the case then…'_ A thin line formed on his mouth as he was already imaging what that could mean for them, for the sand village if what he saw was the real deal.

Temari on the other hand, was using an exercise she did whenever she wanted to get her mind off things. That was trying to sense everything around her. Like always, everything around her vanished, letting place to an abstract sight that showed her the position of every metal in her range of sight. That was how she was able to sense the special metal she remembered putting on Namikaze's teammate, Tenten if she remembered correctly.

She was surprised to 'see' that said person was in a deserted area, with no one around her. This made her smirk almost sinisterly as an idea immediately came to her mind.

_'If I can't get _him_ right now, then I will at least get his teammate_'

She thought just before rising from the ground and getting out of the training ground under the watchful eyes of Gaara and Baki.

* * *

**KONOHA – **_UNKNOWN AREA –_

Naruto looked in front of him and couldn't help but remember how he came to be in contact with one if not the shrewdest man he has come to know in his relatively short life. It wasn't a fated destiny or another mysterious event that some would call. No, he met him for two reasons.

The first was because at the time, he needed protection from the highest ranking ninja in the village, the Hokage. Yes, strange for a ninja to need to protect himself from his boss, but you never know. At the time, he had just got out of the binding seal that Sarutobi put on him. The seal wasn't something that would hinder him in the training aspect. Rather, it was made specifically to insure his loyalty to the current Hokage and only.

If he were to try to rebel in any way, he would experience pain to such an extent that he would wish he was dead instead. What was even more dangerous was the fact that he wasn't aware of his predicament and wouldn't have, were it not for his _sensei_, the one who removed the seal and helped him whenever he needed some advices.

The second reason for his meeting with Danzo was the fact that the two possessed the same mentality. While the current ninja population disliked the way Danzo went about doing his business, he found it to his liking. His fighting style was after all inspired a little by Danzo's living style. Even though when it comes to fighting, he found Danzo to be no better than the other ninjas as the latter preferred powerful techniques.

He should know, with the latest ability Danzo gained thanks to his help when it came to the medical aspect of the ninja life.

Coming back to the matter at hands, he waited patiently for all of the ninja in the room to get out before he finally spoke.

"I didn't think you would want to meet me so soon." He looked surprised at Danzo. "Am I right in assuming that it is because of what happened with the Kazekage's son?"

Danzo smiled at this. "You have always been too perceptive for your own good." To which Naruto responded. "Considering it saved my life several times, I will take that as a compliment." He said before he did something that made Danzo narrow his eyes. Indeed Naruto who was standing still with his hands behind his back, just put them in front of him and crossed them.

Knowing what that meant, Danzo kept talking as if nothing was wrong. "Were you able to learn anything about Oto no Kuni?" Naruto nodded at the question and looked at Danzo strangely. The latter seeing the look, made a small gesture for Naruto to explain.

"While I learned nothing about the village itself, I was able to learn that they weren't in the village just for the exams, but were there to gain entry to the village during the finals." Naruto waited for Danzo to analyze what he just said and finally came to the conclusion that Naruto expected.

"I see. That is why you choose to eliminate the team from Oto when you could have spared them. This not only insured that they wouldn't gain access to the village as they don't have a ninja in the finals, thus don't have any valuable reason to be here, but also removed any future threats they might become. Well done Naruto – kun."

The interested said nothing but continued his report. "Several others events, like the appearance of Orochimaru, the sudden appearance of a new village that no one has heard about, aren't mere coincidence. All of this made me concludes that we are about to be invaded."

He finished to a wide-eyed Danzo who was surprised at the turn of the events. He was already trying to come up with a counter from this "not-anymore" surprise attack when Naruto finally uncrossed his hands. He became serious again. "So our spy is gone?"

"Indeed. It seems that the information I gave you was enough to satisfy the spy or he chose to get out of here before he was caught." Naruto explained to Danzo who nodded in understanding but still frowned in distaste.

"What I want to understand is how he came this close to us without my knowing."

"That would be because this spy is able to completely hide his chakra from the world to the point that even a sensor wouldn't pick it up."

Danzo looked at him intently at that. Knowing why the gaze was about Naruto continued. "While this technique is effective, it also stops the user from using any chakra at all. In which case, he cannot hide his scent and uses any stealth techniques that need chakra. I think that will be enough for you to come to the correct conclusion."

Danzo just nodded in a dismissive gesture before looking at the ceiling in obvious concentration. "The only person I know who can use this technique in Konoha is Koharu. That would mean that this spy is none other than _her_." Naruto just nodded at that, already knowing the identity of the spy and not surprised in the least.

"I didn't think that she would go so far as to learn from that old hag just to get back at me."

"You'd be surprised at what length people are willing to go to get their revenge." Naruto said apathetically, which made Danzo look sharply at him. "I suppose you'd know what you are talking about, wouldn't you? At any rate, I still don't understand how _she _came to learn that I was behind the death of _her_ father."

Knowing that Naruto wasn't going to answer that question, as it was a rhetorical question anyway, he decided to get back to the point of the meeting. "Now that she is gone, how did you really learn of this invasion?"

Naruto hesitated for just a moment before he finally took a decision. "This came with the side effect of a jutsu I recently learned. While it isn't practical yet, I was able to gather the memories of a member of the sand team."

"I will spare you the details but to sum it up, Suna is currently in a precarious position, having lost a third of their missions because the Wind Daimyo is sending them to Konoha. So to stop this, they decided to side with Oto and attack the village during the finals of the exams. While I don't know what role Orochimaru is playing in this, I do know that he will be present."

Danzo listened intently to what Naruto said, while formulating plans after plans to get around this. "At least, with the information _she _gained, Sarutobi will learn of this invasion soon enough to formulate a plan that will certainly work against them. But just in case, we need to increase our chances by doing something drastic. Something that will cripple either Suna or Oto."

He said out loud and put his hand under his chin in a thinking pose, trying to come up with something. Like intended, Naruto too thought about a solution and came up with one that was not only bold but also dangerous at best. "I may have a solution for this."

Danzo focused again on Naruto. "We know that this invasion will be led by the Kazekage and Orochimaru at least. While we cannot reach the latter, the Kazekage is fair game."

"I see. And how would you go about doing this?" Danzo inquired.

"Easily. For this invasion, the Kazekage will need to travel from sand country to Konoha. He will not want to raise our suspicions so he will travel with a light guard. This will be the best time to strike by ambushing him. With one of the leader of this invasion down, they will certainly be forced to improvise, thus implement a plan not as thorough as it could have been. The problem right now will be to find someone that has the capabilities and the opportunity to do this."

Danzo contemplated what Naruto said and couldn't help but agree with him. _'Indeed, with one of them down, they will need to find another scenario to implement their plan. And knowing Orochimaru, he will certainly use this opportunity to get close to Sarutobi by impersonating the Kazekage. Yes, that could work._'

Having determined the chances of success for this mission, he was now having a hard time deciding or finding someone who could go on such mission. After all, despite the Kazekage being barely acceptable as a kage, he still was, thus had the skills that came with the position.

_'Right now, the only ninja in the village that could deal with the Kazekage are Kakashi if just barely, Gai if he were to open those gates of his, Koharu with those Genjutsu of her, Sarutobi of course and finally myself.'_ He looked at Naruto who was standing still in front of him. _'Despite his power and style of fighting, he still isn't ready to face someone of that calibre.'_ Finally he came to a decision that made Naruto wide-eyed.

"I will go after the Kazekage myself. I need to get back in shape anyway, so that will be a good workout."

Naruto looked at Danzo shocked by what the latter said, as he never imagined Danzo would take such mission. But thinking about it, he deduced the reason behind this move. "You want to test that technique, don't you?"

The smirk on Danzo's mouth was all that he needed to confirm his suspicions.

Knowing that the matter was closed, he decided that the time was right to ask a favour to Danzo. "While this is interesting and all, I would like to be granted the permission to use one of the disposable prisoner to test a technique I came up with."

Danzo looked at Naruto warily at that. After all, the last time Naruto made that request, he almost gave away the position of the Root headquarters, thanks to the amount of chakra the technique gave off. "I will grant that request only if you make sure that the latest incident won't repeat itself." He looked at Naruto seriously to make him understand that it was an important matter. Once Naruto nodded, he made a gesture that signaled Naruto that he could leave.

Naruto bowed slightly before he made his way out. _'Now that this is over, I have to find Tenten to begin the training.'_

* * *

**KONOHA – ****_TRAINING GROUND 9_**** – **_WITH TENTEN_

* * *

In a remote area, Tenten was standing looking at the trees in front of her. This place was the official training ground of her team and the reason for his remoteness was that it was needed for keeping secret the training that the Namikaze heir was undergoing.

_'Not that he really used this advantage as he always trains in secret in who knows where'_ Tenten thought as she jumped in the sky and rotated her body until she was upside down. Her arms blurred as she launched her kunais. Those weapons pierced through the air before reaching their targets with perfect accuracy.

She graciously landed on the ground and sighed. _'Still not fast enough.' _She was trying to increase the speed at which the weapons flew but was having no luck with that. Her last fight with Temari had shown her that she needed to increase the speed of her flying weapons if she wanted to reach more powerful targets. But that was easier said than done, as such improvement wasn't acquired in the middle of the night.

"What are you doing here?" Tenten asked to the person who appeared behind her. Going by the anger laced behind the voice, it was easy to determine that whoever it was wasn't someone she liked.

Behind her, the figure slowly crept out of the bush that hid her body, before revealing none other than Temari with her fan already completely opened. She slowly walked toward Tenten with measured steps, before stopping a few meters from the latter who just turned around to face her. "I see you aren't as incompetent as I thought you were, if you were able to sense me." She sneered at Tenten. "Not that I was trying to hide in the first place."

"So the fact that you have been trying and failing miserably to dodge the defensive measures on this training ground is just mere coincidence." Tenten retorted while glaring at the intruder who glared right back.

"We both know that you aren't here to exchange whatever pleasantry you usually do with your friends if you even have any that is. So why are you here?"

Temari snarled at the insult she received but managed to calm herself pretty quickly, having learned from their last encounter to not be goaded. Instead she smiled in such a sweet way that even Tenten was a little taken off guard. "I assure you, I am not here for anything your little mind can come up with." She slowly brought her fan behind her in a ready position to use her wind jutsus. This made Tenten tense in anticipation. "While I cannot avenge my brother yet, I'll have to make do with you for the moment."

Just as she finished, she swung her fan strongly and created a whirlwind that charged toward Tenten's shocked form. The wind tore through Tenten before she could properly defend herself. Fortunately, she was able to replace herself with a log but not without suffering heavy damages from the attack. Temari quickly turned around knowing exactly where her target was thanks to the special metal she planted on Tenten.

"You can't hide from me bitch. I can sense you a mile away." Temari yelled while she turned around and swung her fan again, sending another whirlwind at the woods where Tenten had prepared to launch her attack from. This forced her to rethink her strategy and jump to another tree to escape the wind attack.

From there, everything went the same as during the exam, going even as far as Tenten using her _Twin rising dragon_. But this had the same effect that it had during the preliminaries, which means no effect at all. During all this, Temari was enjoying herself thoroughly as she was beating the shit out of Tenten and was venting her frustration.

Before long, Tenten fell on the floor unable to move anymore with blood pouring out of her body. Temari slowly advanced Tenten, all the while savoring the revenge she was delivering to the 'deserving bitch' in her eyes. She stopped just above Tenten and slowly raised her fan and positioned it in a makeshift sword, ready to decapitate her target.

"Any last words bitch?"

Tenten struggled to move but still looked defiantly at Temari just before the latter snarled at the defiance and swung the weapon. This time there was no one to save Tenten and that is why, like several ninjas before her, she took her last breath.

Seeing the dead body of one of her nemesis, Temari cried to the heaven in victory as she had accomplished one of her goals. After several seconds of yelling herself horse, she finally calmed down enough to look around her. And that is when everything became strange to her.

The sky went from blue to red.

The trees surrounding the training dissolved into nothing.

And finally the body of Tenten disappeared leaving no traces at all.

This alarmed her and she immediately knew that she was caught in an illusion. The shock she experienced was nothing short of humongous. She couldn't remember when she fell for this Genjutsu. Was it when she confronted her target? Was it when she looked at Tenten in the eyes? None of this made any senses to her. But she still did what any shinobi would have done in such a situation, she stopped the flow of her chakra in the hope of escaping the illusion but that didn't work, which further stunned her.

Finally after a moment, everything went black before her sight came back again and what she saw wasn't something she was ready for, because several paper bombs that were linked together in a way that if one of them was activated, the whole lot of them would explode too in a chain reaction surrounded her. And if that wasn't enough, the one controlling them was none other than her nemesis Tenten who was looking at her with a satisfied smirk.

"What do you think would have happened when you came here in the first place? Did you really think that our team wouldn't ensure that our training ground was protected from any outsiders?" Temari ignored the question for asking one of her own. "How? How did you capture me in that Genjutsu?" The way she spoke gave out the desperate situation she was in.

She knew that there were no escaping the trap she was in, so she was trying to stall for time hoping for a miracle to happen. None of this escaped Tenten noticed who savored the reversed role they had, as she was still bitter from her defeat.

"Do you really think I will reveal such thing to you? The only thing I will say is this, what made you think that you would be free to act as you see fit in our village? Did it never occur to you that there would always be someone watching you and your team?"

As she said that, a squad of four anbu materialized behind Tenten who was forced to defuse the seal bombs she had set as they requested. After all it wouldn't do for Konoha to kill another child of the Kazekage and this time in an unsanctioned battle. Tenten reluctantly did as she was told while the leader of the team whom had a cat mask, slowly approached Temari.

"I would advise against attacking another Konoha ninja and trespassing a restricted area again. You and your team are but guests in this village, you will do well to remember that."

Temari only distantly listened to the threat that was delivered by the anbu, and instead focused on Tenten, angry for having been played so easily. And if that wasn't enough she still didn't know what really happened in the first place. Though, she did calm herself and as coolly as she could, she gestured for the anbu to lead the way knowing that they would conduct her back to her team. _'I will remember that bitch. Don't even think for a second that I will forget this humiliation.'_ She thought viciously while she was being led back to where she came from.

In the training ground, Tenten looked at the proceedings and sighed in frustration. She had really wanted to get back at Temari for what she did to her during the exams. _'I will have to settle for this for now'_ she thought to herself just as Naruto appeared in front of her in a swirl of leafs.

Before Naruto could speak, she asked a question of her own. "How long have you been here?"

"Long enough. You do know that she won't forget this, don't you?"

"Like I care. She had it coming anyway." Tenten answered while she retrieved the stuck weapons on the target practice. It wasn't long before she came back and stood in front of him. "Did you come to train?"

Naruto shook his head in a negative answer. "It is time for us to begin your training." He said simply to which Tenten smiled widely. "Really? I thought you'd want to train alone for the finals?"

Naruto just went through handseals as he answered her question. "Who said I wouldn't be training too?" He finished and slowly, like before, water like door appeared in front of him. Seeing this stunned Tenten. "Don't tell me we will train at your home? I thought no one except you could get there?"

Her voice was trembling with shock, as she didn't think that Naruto would ever let anyone enter his home. "Don't flatter yourself. Although we will train in my compound, you won't be able to go anywhere but the training grounds. Now don't waste my time and come already."

Naruto said as he gestured with his hand for Tenten to follow. Once the latter got over her shock she hesitantly moved through the flowing door with Naruto beside her.

The only thing she could feel as she went through the door was the sensation of being stripped down to nothing. No, that wasn't the right word, she felt like she was disassembled before being reassembled. Almost instantly, she got her senses back and slowly opened her eyes and what she saw floored her completely.

Because where she expected to see giant trees, she saw a clearing made of short grasses. The grass looked like it was taken care of everyday, as they seemed far too well cut for it to have been naturally grown. But what got her attention the most were the strange elevated areas all around the clearing. There were at least a dozen of those platforms. These areas were about 2 meters above the ground.

"Each platform is made specifically to train a branch of the ninja arts." Tenten looked at Naruto as she heard him said that. "I won't tell you how they were created but what I can tell you is that they are more like gateways to virtual worlds where someone can train."

Seeing the questioning look on Tenten's face, Naruto decided to elaborate further. "For example the elevated area in front of you with the label chakra control in front of it." He pointed the area at Tenten who looked at it. "It simulates several kind of landscape like sandy, watery, even icy ones. This in turn allows the user to train their chakra control for each of those environments."

Tenten stood shocked at that; not having imagined something like that could be possible. But she regained her senses when she saw Naruto move toward a big house that she hadn't noticed. "I will let you go over each of these platforms while I go inside the house to take something. Oh and don't try to get out of this field, you won't be able to."

Tenten just nodded numbly as she was still trying to assimilate what she had learned. While Naruto went to his house, she moved around the platforms trying to guess what each of them did by reading their labels. So far she found that there was a platform to train in _stealth, speed, strength _and _strategy_. She was curious about how those platforms worked but she knew better than to use a device she didn't know the working of.

It wasn't long before her teammate came back from the house and she was surprised to see him carrying what looked like a scroll. She observed as he went across each of the platforms and put the scroll on it, before a blazing light came off of it. It was obvious, he was activating them so she stayed calm and observed him, until he finished and came back in front of her.

"Now that it is done, we can begin." Naruto gestured for Tenten to sit on the floor, and followed soon after. "You said that you wanted my help for training, but before going into that, I have several questions to ask."

Tenten looked at him attentively with a serious gaze, as if telling him to 'shoot' his questions. Taking that as a sign to begin, Naruto asked first. "What is your goal?"

She looked at him completely taken aback by this question. She was prepared for any kind of questions concerning her abilities but not about her goal. After a moment of reflexion, she finally answered. "I… I don't know really. All I want is to become a very good shinobi, to show everyone that a girl can also be a good shinobi."

"There are already plenty of kunoïchis out there that show us that women can also be good ninjas, so what difference would one more make?"

Not affected by Naruto rebuke, she answered back. "I don't know, but I want to left my mark on the world. I want to be one of the kunoichis that will be remembered as having played a role in giving female ninjas, the respect they deserve." She said firmly with her eyes radiating a determination that even surprised Naruto.

"Very well then." The latter said while nodding at the explanation. "Now that I know your goal, I need to know what talents you think you have. What abilities you have, and what you need to work on."

Tenten put her hand on her chin in a thinking pose as she thought about her abilities. After a while, she finally came to a conclusion, one that didn't really painted her in a great light.

"Well, if I rate myself using the different abilities of the ninjas, I am close to average when it comes to Ninjutsu – as I know only the 3 academy jutsus –, my skills in Genjutsu are non existent except when it comes to dispelling the weak ones, in taijutsu I am above average." She finished while Naruto just looked at her impassively, neither reacting nor disappointed.

"What about special abilities? Do you have any?" He asked.

"The only special ability I see is the one allowing me to always target accurately with any throwing weapons."

"And what do you think you should do to progress further?" Naruto asked finally after a long silence. Tenten gazed at him with an expression akin to 'what the fuck?', before answering. "That is the reason I came to you in the first place, didn't I?"

"That may be true, but do you expect me to give you all the answers you are looking for? I am a ninja like you, I am not a walking device able to give you any answers." Naruto answered while looking at a chastised Tenten. "Fortunately in this case I have an answer for you, but you shouldn't rely so much on me or anyone for that matter, so take that as a one time only." She nodded before he continued.

"To become strong one as to look at his strengths and weaknesses, and improve upon them in a specific manner. You must use your strengths to the maximum of your capability, while you improve you weaknesses until they aren't a weakness anymore, but some abilities where you are average at least. Going by this, what do you think you should do?"

Tenten thought quickly about what her teammate said, and went through everything she knew about herself before she smiled and came to an answer. "I have to use my accuracy to the best of my capabilities and increase my skills in every other ninja fields until they are average." Then she frowned. "I get it for the other ninja fields but what about my accuracy? I already use throwing weapons but their speed are directly linked to the force behind my throw, so no matter what I do, I will reach a point where it won't matter because ninjas will be too fast to be caught by a throwing weapon."

Naruto just looked at her and waited until Tenten widened her eyes in understanding. "I know. I have to find a way to throw things at a speed independent of my strength." Tenten smiled triumphantly at that. This made Naruto's lips twitch a little as if he wanted to smile too, but it quickly disappeared before anyone could see it, letting place to the calm looking Naruto.

"Are you familiar with crossbows?" Naruto asked, interrupting his teammate who nodded her head. "Then you should begin to think of a way to use one in a ninja fight."

"What about the time needed to charge an arrow in-between shots?" Tenten asked while frowning at the new difficulty that arose.

"Don't worry about that yet, by the time of the chuunin exam finals, I will have a weapon for you to use, that won't have that problem. What you need to concentrate on is to find a way to fight in long range, as that is what you will have to do from now on. Of course I don't have to tell you not to neglect other aspect of being a ninja."

Tenten nodded at that, while Naruto got up and moved towards one of the platforms. "Now it is time to test you. We will begin with strategy." Tenten groaned at that knowing that she was in for a long time.

* * *

**KONOHA – ****_UNKNOWN LOCATION_** –

* * *

While Naruto and Tenten were training, several other people were plotting. Whether it was against them in particular was something that remained to be seen, but right now, two people were standing in a room devoid of any furniture. This was done to easily spot any recording or spying devices. One of them was none other than Koharu Utatane, one of the elders of Konoha council.

Few people knew this, but in her youth she was a ninja with skills in Genjutsu that were unparalleled. She was so good at it that she invented her own brand of illusion, ones that made even the Uchiha clan think twice before engaging her in combat.

In front of her stood a ninja that seemed very short and thin. Said ninja wore a mask that hid his face and because of the darkness of the room, it was difficult to see the hair colour.

"I see that you came back safely from your venture. It seems that you have progressed quite fast." Koharu asked. "Yes master. It was thanks to your lessons of course." The short ninja answered softly.

"So what did you learn from that old crone Danzo."

"Several things master. During my venture, I came across a meeting of some kind. The meeting was between the Namikaze heir and him." Koharu nodded at that, not the least bit surprised by that, as it was well known among the higher echelon that Naruto and Danzo were close and were working together. For what? No one knew.

"It seems that Namikaze – san had other objectives during the chuunin exams. He talked about having investigated everything related to Oto no Kuni and came to the conclusion that they weren't in the village just for the exam but to actually gain an entrance to the village by using the final part of the exam as an excuse."

Koharu interrupted her at that. "For what purposes?"

"For an invasion it seems." The spy answered to a wide-eyed Koharu not having expected that. The latter made a gesture for the spy to continue. "It also seems that Orochimaru is among the ones plotting this invasion, as he has close ties with Oto. But what he is to that village, they don't know yet." Finished the spy.

"We can assume that he is the leader of Oto. Knowing him, he would never accept being led by anyone. That was one of the reasons he fled the village after losing the spot of yondaime hokage." Koharu mused out loud as she was thinking of the repercussions of this information. She could already imagine the Sarutobi's reaction once he learned what his once prized student was planning.

Finally she looked back at her apprentice. "Where you able to learn anything else? Something about the Namikaze perhaps?" But her apprentice shook her head in a negative gesture. "Unfortunately, no. I only learned that he killed the Oto team to stop them from gaining an entry to the village during the finals. But beyond that, nothing."

Koharu nodded at that, not having expected anything conclusive. After all, she like several other people, has been trying to learn anything about the boy for a long time now, but it seemed that he was simply too perceptive for any spy. He never trained outside his compound – they didn't even know its location – despite the training ground they prepared specifically for him and his team. _'To think that it was only a few days ago that we were able to see the Namikaze bloodline in action, and what a dangerous bloodline it is.'_ She thought while shuddering a little while remembering the way Naruto dispatched Kankuro for an unknown reason.

She was about to dismiss her apprentice when the latter looked pointedly at her and asked a question that was quickly becoming a routine. "Why am I not allowed to go after Danzo yet?"

Koharu sighed tiredly at that. "Do I need to remind you that you are not yet ready to face someone like him? He may be old, but he didn't fight for the spot of Sandaime hokage by being weak you know?"

But like always, her apprentice stubbornly refused to accept her words. "That may be so, but even a kage can be killed by a genin with the right tools. I know that he cannot sense me when I use those Genjutsu you taught me. It would be easy for me to sneak on him and do the job."

This time Koharu's eyes narrowed. "Don't get cocky little girl. You may be able to sneak on him but by the time you make your move he will have killed you. On paper, it is easy to say that you can kill anyone with the right preparations but faced with a Kage level ninja, all preparations are nothing more than little distractions."

She chastised her apprentice while leaking a little bit of killing intent, enough to stop her apprentice dead on track. "I know you want to avenge the death of your father Sakura, but you will avenge no one if you end up dead."

The newly revealed Sakura nodded slowly as she stood up from her kneeling position before exiting the room they were in, but not before the light of day showed her pink hairs to the world.

* * *

**KONOHA – ****_NEXT DAY _**–

* * *

In a dimly lighted path, Naruto was walking at a leisurely pace. It was very earlier in the morning but that didn't stop him from waking up and doing what he had to do. Right now, he was walking toward a training facility that was prepared by one of the members of 'Root'. He didn't train in his own compound because today's training involved a prisoner provided by Danzo, for his experiments.

While walking, he came across a member of the organization that wasn't unknown to him. In front of him stood a young ninja that seemed as old as he, but that was where the similarities ended. While he wore standard black anbu outfit, the one in front of him wore a black pant accompanied by an outrageously short shirt that left his belly visible. Add to that the creepy smile that this person seemed to have fixed on his face.

'_No mistakes possible, this is...'_

"You are up early Naruto – sempai." The ninja in front of Naruto said.

"I can say the same about you, then again, unlike you I don't live here, Sai."

The latter just nodded, but didn't ask more questions knowing that his sempai didn't like being questioned too much. Fortunately Naruto took the initiative.

"I see that you are still reading that book on human mannerisms."

"How so, sempai?" Sai asked innocently.

"Only in that book would you find the use of that ceaseless smile to be normal for human being." Naruto continued to an unperturbed Sai who still had his creepy smile on. But that didn't bother Naruto in the slightest, having already become accustomed to it.

"But I digress, with you here I can finally ask you something that bothered me." Sai with the same smile muttered something that resembled 'go on'.

"Did Danzo ask you to flunk the exams?"

"Yes, what of it?"

Naruto looked at Sai with narrowed eyes, already thinking of the reasons behind Danzo's moves. "I am just surprised that you let that Inuzuka get the better of you." He finally said to his fellow ninja who just shrugged it off as if it was nothing.

"It wasn't really difficult to do that. As long as it serves a purpose for Danzo – sama, I'm fine with it." This answer made Naruto even more suspicious, as he knew very well that Sai wasn't someone who liked to be considered weak and thus had never intentionally lost a fight.

_'I suppose it comes with the pride we take in our strength. With the amount of time and dedication it takes to reach our level, it is not surprising we want to be recognized for it.'_ Naruto thought while thinking of a reason behind Sai's nonchalant response. It wasn't long before he came to the probable reason and it made him look at Sai with an intense gaze.

"Sai, what are you planning on doing to the Inuzuka?" He softly asked Sai whose smile widened even further if that was possible. The smile was enough for Naruto to know that his fellow ninja was planning something against Kiba, something that wouldn't be good for the latter.

"Have a good training session Naruto – sempai." Sai joyfully replied while moving around Naruto to go about doing his business.

Naruto just looked at Sai's back before sighing and walking towards the training facility he was supposed to be at. _'I could probably force him to stop whatever he has planed for the Inuzuka but that would just make him hold a grudge against me, and I can't afford that right now. In any case, it isn't my problem and it doesn't interfere with my plans. But enough thinking about that, I have a test to accomplish right now_._'_

It wasn't long before he reached the training room and walked methodically toward its center. The room was just a large cave that was built using several _Doton_ jutsus, as the walls and the ceiling were hardened chunks of earth. The ground was bare of any herbs. At the center of the room was a small lake with a small island in the middle.

While walking, Naruto could see the man that was tied on the chunk of earth. The man had a hood completely covering his face. This was done to spare those that saw him, the nightmare of seeing him being tortured and whatever could happen to him. Not that it helped Naruto much as with his dojutsu, he could see right through the fabric. He could disable it, but he chose not to, as he didn't want to do something on someone that he knew personally. After all, it wasn't impossible for Danzo to get Naruto to experiment on someone he knew, with him being none the wiser. Add to that, the fact that what he did to those prisoners didn't bother him in the least, as he knew that not only would they do the same to him if they had the chance but he did nothing that would leave any lasting effects except maybe killing them by mistake.

Once he was in front of the man, he silently created a clone of him that retrieved a scroll from his pocket, before going back to the entrance. Once there, the clone slowly unravelled it, showing that it was filled with several sealing matrices. Then the clone sent chakra on it before the scribbling glowed blue and quickly expanded until it covered the entrance. Then in a flash the blue light covered the whole room before disappearing as if nothing had happened.

Seeing his work done, the clone nodded at his creator before slowly crumbling, showing that it was an earth clone. Naruto looked at his clone and smiled, knowing that the seal he applied would destroy any spying or recording device, all the while making it impossible for anyone to enter until he deactivated the seal. This was done so that Danzo wouldn't know what he was experimenting on.

He looked back at the man in front of him, and said slowly. "I do not know who you are and I really do not care, just know that you will help me today in testing the efficiency of a seal I just designed."

He said out loud while going to work on applying the final version of the seal that he finished the design in the forest and thanks to the snake sannin.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

I hope you liked this chapter. Now reviews if you liked the chapter or if you have a comment to add.

Next time, you will finally get to see what the seal Naruto created do.


	7. All according to the plan

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto or Kekkaishi. It is the propriety of Kishimoto and ? respectively.

Edited: 05/12/2013

* * *

**_Chapter 7: All according to the plan._**

* * *

**KONOHA – **

Naruto was standing in a room bare of anyone except a prisoner and himself. Strangely enough, the prisoner was almost naked, as the only piece of clothing he had, was a boxer. Another strange thing was the scribbling that covered the prisoner upper body. From afar, it would look like a tattoo, but if you were well versed in seals and close up, you would immediately understand that it wasn't a simple scribbling or even a tattoo, but something else whose complexity was so high that few, even among seals masters, would understand it.

He was in front of the prisoner slowly observing and admiring his handiwork. '_No matter how many times I see them, I am still amazed at the beauty of seals. To be able to do so much with only a few diagrams and symbols, this must really be a language created by the god themselves._' He thought while analyzing the seal, trying to find any errors he could have made.

So far there was none and it was perfect just like he imagined it. The seal was made in a circular pattern just like his father used to draw seals. At the center, was a whirlpool like pattern and surrounding it were several scribbles that were written in a circular pattern too. This circular pattern wasn't used just for adornment. It had a meaning of its own.

You see, upon reaching the level of master in seals, you had to personalize your sealing creation in such a way that it will either make it more difficult to decipher or boost the overall power and activation speed of the seal. It could even improve both. Like several masters before him, the yondaime personalized his seals by using the Uzumaki clan symbol as a model and his son followed in his footstep by using the same symbol.

This was done because the whirlpool shape had the merit of improving not only the power and activation speed of the seal, but also increased the difficulty to decipher them. That was because by using a circular pattern, the seal had different meaning depending on the direction you read it. You could read it in a circular pattern, clockwise or counter clockwise. Or you could read it in a straight vertical line. This increased the difficulty to write seals using this pattern as your seal needed to have a meaning in each of the reading pattern, but at the same time, it allowed the writer to make several functions of the seals with only a few symbols.

The power and the speed of the seal came from the meaning of the whirlpool pattern. In seals, this shape had several meaning. Among those were concentration, condensation, infinity and loading. Because of this, the power and speed of the seal increased exponentially, depending on the amount of chakra added to it and the time allowed for the seal to 'load' itself. So that meant the longer the seal was activated, the more powerful it became.

This was the most important part of the seal for the one Naruto designed. Because the seal that he proudly named _Fuinjutsu: Dai Kui_ (Gluttony). The name of the seal said it all about its functionalities. Indeed, the seal had one primary objective: to absorb chakra from any jutsus. At least in paper, the test he was doing would determine whether it worked or not.

The seal is done by separating his design in several steps. The first step is the transformation of the elemental jutsu in its base component, which is chakra. After this step, the chakra – which is neutral now – is absorbed in the tenketsus of the user, thus refilling the user reserves. Because the seal depends heavily on the position of the user's tenketsus, Naruto was very grateful that he implemented the adaptability of the snake sannin body, in the seal, so he wouldn't need to reapply the seal every time he grew up.

Coming back to the matter at hands, Naruto having finished inspecting the seal took a few steps back and stood about 10 meter from the prisoner. He could hear the person's whimpering in fright, not knowing what was going on, but he shut it out of his mind, and concentrated on the task at hand. "I will start with a low wind jutsu to be sure that it works properly. No need to hurt you for nothing after all." Naruto said out loud to the prisoner, before going through handseals.

"Futon: daitoppa" A small gust of wind moved toward the increasingly whimpering prisoner whom was alarmed by the sudden shift in the wind currents. Before long, the gust reached him and what happened next made Naruto smile, not caring if anyone saw him display his emotions, because at about half a meter from the prisoner, a translucent shield appeared and absorbed very quickly the chakra inside the wind gust, before dissipating it completely. At least he saw all of this with his dojutsu.

'The absorption part work correctly and just as fast as I thought it would. Now I need to test it with a more powerful jutsu to see its limits.'

With his planning done, he went about sending increasingly more powerful wind jutsu at the prisoner. And each time he got the desired result. In the end he concluded that the seal would work normally against jutsus below the A-Rank level. But anything higher than that would force him to stay still for a long time and suffer from the kinetic energy. Despite this setback he was happy because he could now recharge his chakra reserve by using the jutsus of his opponents.

"Now to see how it reacts with the other elements..." Naruto said out loud while rummaging through his pockets for his specialized seals. After a moment, he found them and quickly opened each one of them in front of the prisoner. Each of the scrolls was labelled with a letter going from D to S.

Each one simulated a jutsu of the same rank it was labelled with, and thus spared him the waste of chakra to do this experiment. Add to that the fact that he wasn't proficient enough to use Fire, Water and Lightning jutsus with a rank higher than C. That is why he prepared those scrolls. Although useless in real life as they were too easy to detect and avoid, they served their purpose for this test.

An hour or so later, Naruto had finished his experiment and was both happy and disappointed at the same time. Happy because his seals worked perfectly, but disappointed because the absorption part was limited only to fire, water, wind and lightning because those element were somewhat immaterial. In the case of earth jutsu, it wouldn't work because the jutsu was too material or physical to be absorbed. But that was good enough for him.

With the test over, he quickly erased any traces of his experiment and disabled the seal protecting the room, before going back to his compound. He let the prisoner where he was because he knew that some members of 'ROOT' would take him back to his cell or wherever he came from.

* * *

**KONOHA – ****_WITH THE SAND TEAM _****–**

* * *

Naruto wasn't the only one who woke up early in the village. Most of the civilians did the same, at least those that had something to do this early. Those were mostly the vendors that needed to get their products ready for sale. The ninja population did the same too, except those that came back from a mission and had nothing planed for the morning.

Currently, a group of people were speaking rather loudly in a hotel room, at least loudly for a ninja. Those were the members of the sand teams, particularly Temari and her jounin leader, Baki. Going by the tone of the jounin voice, he was furious about something.

"And when were you going to tell me that?" He asked while narrowing his eyes at Temari. "Never if I had my way." Not noticing the way the room became colder or not caring, she kept going. "I don't see how relevant it is to you that I had an altercation with a Konoha genin." All the while she had her hands on her hips, daring her teacher to make a comeback. She was disappointed though when the latter did just that.

"You call _attacking a foreign genin in an unsanctioned battle and in his home no less, IRRELEVANT? _That is not even including the warning I got from the anbu that are following us. And in a moment like this?" Baki yelled furiously not caring if he was spitting on his student.

"What does this moment have to do with anything?" She asked to a bewildered Baki. "You are kidding right? Tell me you are kidding because right now I am seriously considering killing you on the spot, be damned the consequences."

The way it was phrased made Temari pauses, because no matter how bitchy she was to her sensei, she had never seen him this angry before and had never threatened her brothers and her. This was enough to remind her that she was talking to a war veteran, not some upstart jounin.

"Are you seriously telling me that you forget why we came here for and why we need to act inconspicuously?" He asked again, this time lowering his voice in case there were any eavesdroppers.

"Of course not. I just don't see how it could affect our mission."

"You don't see how it could affect it? It ALREADY has, idiot girl." Baki yelled again on Temari's face who took a step back from the man that was starting to scare her. "What do you think the hokage will do now that you attacked one of his ninja? I will tell you what he will do; he will monitor us more closely than before, stopping me from doing what I had to do for the mission to go smoothly. If I can't do what I was sent here for, how can I finish the mission? How does this NOT affect the mission?"

He came closer to Temari and looked at her in the eyes, daring her to make a comeback or any witty comments she had in mind. Seeing the latter sufficiently cowed, he took a deep breath to calm his nerves. "I pride myself in never insulting people, but with you it is just impossible. Before it was bearable but since the death of Kankuro, you seem to think that the world owes you something."

At the mention of her brother, Temari regained her daring attitude and was about to snap at her teacher again but the latter was faster. "You think that you are the first or the only one that lost someone? I lost my whole family while I was still an academy student because of the war. Did that make me go around and yell at anyone that crossed my path? I endured it like everyone else did. I kept in mind that my parents died by defending our home."

Baki looked at Temari who was looking at him attentively. Knowing he had gained her attention, he continued. "Your brother wasn't any different from my parents." Seeing the questioning look on his student face, he explained. "He died trying to pass information about an enemy, information that could have helped us tremendously, information that could have maybe saved several of our comrades. And now you are yelling at everyone, accusing them of being the cause of your brother death. Do you think I wanted him dead?"

For once Temari lowered her head realizing that she went a little overboard this time. She knew perfectly well that her sensei did his best to train them, so that they would be able to defend themselves when needed. Moreover, during the tournament, he tried his best to save her brother, going so far as to even disrupt an official battle in front of the Hokage no less.

"Sorry!" She mumbled. "Come again?" asked Baki. "I said I was sorry okay." She repeated while looking elsewhere, not used to apologize for anything.

But for Baki, it was enough. He was happy at least that he was able to get to her. This calmed him enough to actually look at Temari without any anger visible on his face and sighed tiredly. "Don't worry about the anbu, it won't be the first time I have to deal with some noisy guards. But more importantly, I have to know something."

"What is it?" Temari asked.

"The anbu told me that they stopped that girl… Tenten… That is it. Apparently they stopped her from finishing you off. My question is how did she beat you when you dealt with her during the exam?"

Temari just fumed at being reminded of her near death experience. "That is the thing. I don't know how but she trapped me in a Genjutsu that was so real that it wasn't until she had me tied up and dispelled the illusion herself, that I was able to understand what was going on."

"So you don't know how she did that?" Baki asked while thinking of a way the genin he remembered from the exam, could do that.

"No, but I don't think it was completely her doing. She mentioned that her team wasn't stupid enough to have a training ground so isolated without some protection. So at the very least, I think I triggered one of those defensive measures that trapped me in the illusion." She explained to an attentive looking Baki who nodded at her explanation, not seeing any other solution.

"Anyway, I think that was a good wake up call. I was able to help your brother as much as I could with his training, but I haven't done anything to help you. So tell me something you want to learn and I will see if I can do anything about it. Just keep in mind that you will have less than a month to master whatever I teach you" Baki said as he sat on the couch while Temari put a hand on her chin in a thinking pose.

Right now, there was nothing she specifically needed. She wasn't afraid of the future battles she would partake in, by the end of the month, but she also didn't like to have a glaring weakness. The experience she had with the Genjutsu frightened her. After all, it wasn't easy to feel so vulnerable and that was how she felt when she became aware that she couldn't dispel the illusion she was trapped in. At the same time, she knew that it wasn't because she sucked at Genjutsu; on the contrary, she was very proficient in dispelling them. So she couldn't do anything about it except keep learning as much as she could on Genjutsu, just like she had been doing since becoming a ninja.

That left her with her offensive attacks. And with that, she made her mind on what she wanted to learn, especially after remembering the earlier exams.

"I want to learn everything about the _wind step_."

What Temari chose to learn didn't really surprise Baki as like her, he had analyzed everything he knew about her and came to the conclusion that she needed to increase her strength for the moment, as her weaknesses weren't glaring holes in her abilities. He slowly rose from his seat before moving toward the door. Seeing that his charge hadn't moved an inch from her position, he said.

"What are you waiting for then? You said you want to learn the wind step. That is what we will be doing for the next month then. But I should warn you, don't raise your hope too high, you won't be able to master it in just a month. After all, it is a technique that is given to the most advanced wind users in Suna and even they need time to master it."

Temari nodded at that not having expected anything less, and followed her teacher toward the training that was assigned to them, determination shining in her eyes.

* * *

**KONOHA HOSPITAL –**

* * *

"How is he, doctor?" A tall man wearing an outrageous green attire asked another one wearing a white coat.

"Don't worry Gai – san, your student will be fine after a week or two of rest. He has a few broken bones here and there, nothing too serious. Though I am curious as to how he was able to get away with so few wounds after the description I received of the fight."

Gai hearing this sighed and smiled happily, having expected worse than that. He knew that using the chakra gates was a forbidden jutsu for a reason. He thanked the doctor and got out of the room, knowing that it would do no good to stay there when Lee was still unconscious.

Before long, the doctor followed Gai's example and left the room to visit his other patients. The moment he closed the door, the patient that was Lee, opened his eyes and looked around the room for a moment before sighing in relief once he detected that no one was inside. He slowly rose from the bed until he was leaning against its edge.

Being in a better position, he was able to think clearly, and couldn't help the smile that appeared on his lips.

"It seems that you are at least good for something, if your acting talent is taken into account." A voice said from Lee's left. The latter quickly looked in the direction the voice came from and scowled once he saw who it was.

"_Kabuto_" The name was said with barely contained contempt but instead of irritating the owner of the voice, it only incited a smile on the newly named Kabuto who slowly rose from the ground, as if he had been there the whole time. Upon ending the obvious technique he had used to move inside Lee's room, Kabuto, in his signature move, adjusted his glasses.

"I see that I'm still as wanted as the first time. Did I interrupt something?" Kabuto asked with his perpetual smile firmly attached on his face. The smile elicited a shudder from Lee as always and it seemed to please Kabuto. He looked at Lee overall shape and if possible his smile stretched even further.

"I see that you made good use of the curse seal I graciously gifted you with. Of course you used it briefly as you didn't want hokage – sama and your precious teacher to know that you were a traitor." Kabuto said and smirked upon seeing the annoyed look on Lee's face.

"Those comments stopped affecting me a long while ago. Not that it ever affected me in the first place." Lee answered back. "Oh! Are you saying that Gai means nothing to you?" This time it was Kabuto to be surprised by the answer.

"What made you think that was the case in the first place? Sure he helped me a lot with the training he gave me and by pushing me hard enough to reach my full potential, but did he do something a teacher wouldn't do? Did he help me when I was belittled in my childhood, or in the academy? Did he do anything other than train me to become another ninja to be used and discarded by this village once my usefulness is over, this same village that scorned me for not being able to use jutsus?"

"For all those questions, the answer is NO. He did none of those things. And who am I to blame him? He had other responsibilities and we aren't even remotely related so why should he do all those things to me. No, I think he did his job just like he was asked. If by doing it he came to be attached to me, that is his problem. Long before he became my teacher, I had already made my mind on what I wanted; It's not one person that will make me change who I am and what I want."

Lee finished before taking a long breath to calm himself, having lost control by the end of his speech. And what speech it was. Kabuto looked at him with a new light after hearing this and this time smiled. Not the same smile he used, but a genuine one.

"Good to hear that. For a moment, I thought you would back down from your path. But I see that I was worried over nothing."

"So why are you here for?" Lee asked breaking the silence that fell upon them after his long speech. As if he was coming back to his senses, Kabuto expression went from a thinking pose to an enlightened one.

"Ah yes! I did come for a reason, didn't I? It was to warn you that I wouldn't be in the village for a moment. Maybe not until the final, because it seems that my cover finally blew. It seems that the higher ups finally wizened up and are now investigating my case." He finished not the least bit afraid that he now had a whole ninja village at his heels.

Like he expected, Lee scowled at that. "You made this long trip and took such a risk seeing me, just to tell me this?"

He was about to continue his rant when Kabuto interrupted him by removing a scroll from his pocket. The scroll was deceptively plain, but he knew better than to assume anything. Knowing that Kabuto would explain what it was, he waited patiently for the latter to do just that. And he didn't have to wait for long. Going by the smile that stretched his face, Lee assumed that whatever was inside the scroll must be really great.

"What you are looking at is my greatest achievement to date and one that you should fell honored to witness. You already know that I have found a way to apply the curse seal that Orochimaru created. And unlike him, I don't need to bite someone to do that." Lee nodded while reflexively touching his chest. "Until now though, I couldn't give anything more than the first level of the seal, not including the fact that the user must not be able to fully use chakra like you, but with this I can now give you the second level of the curse seal."

Kabuto finished proudly at that, while thinking on how Orochimaru thought he was manipulating him when he was in fact allowing the latter to do so, just to further his research and learn whatever the snake sannin had to offer until he was able to dispose of him. He had pilfered everything he had access to, while being the second in command of a man who had a veritable gold mine of information. Thanks to this, he had been able to replicate to an extent, the effect of the seal, after having thoroughly examined the first possessor of the curse seal.

After that it had just been a matter of finding one to experiment upon. That was when he had stumbled upon Lee during one of his mission in Rice country. And from there, everything had been going smoothly, and that was good news for him.

While he was thinking, Lee too was thinking about what he just heard and couldn't help but shiver in anticipation. The first level of the seal already gave him an ability that was truly fearsome, especially for someone like him, but knowing that the second level was supposed to increase the effect of the first, he knew that if he were to master it, he would become very powerful, easily able to rival his teacher.

As fast as the thought came, he quickly scolded himself. Because of this he had almost forgetten what stopped him from showing this to anyone, other than the fact that they would put him down for being a traitor. No, he couldn't act before he found a way to protect himself from his most glaring weakness, Genjutsu.

He may have damaged coils but that didn't stop other from affecting him with Genjutsu and no matter how much he tried, it was simply impossible for him to dispel them. Why? He didn't know yet, but he had an inkling that his nemesis Naruto knew why, that was the reason he was still inside this village. He was hoping for Naruto to tell him why, but the latter had never trusted him, no matter what he did. It was like Naruto knew who he truly was underneath the act. Deciding to think about it at a later time, he regained his focus and looked at Kabuto while the latter explained how to use it. Before long, he had the whole process down and put the scroll in a pocket of his used clothes that were in a corner of the room. After that he went back to sleep, already impatient of testing it once he was feeling better.

* * *

**KONOHA –**

* * *

Standing in a training dojo, were three persons. The first one a man roughly fifteen years old, he was wearing a brown pants with a black muscle shirt. He also wore a headband with the Iwa symbol on it. The second person was a woman wearing a blue kimono fastened by a black belt around her waist. Like the man before her, she had a headband on her arm with the symbol for Kumo. She was standing beside the first person and the two were looking intently at the third figure in the room.

This one was none other than Tenten. She was looking sharply at them, her eyes darting from left to right, trying to pinpoint something that seemed invisible. After a moment, she looked back at the people in front of her and as if a signal was given, the three blurred into action.

Quickly taking several shurikens from her pouch, she launched them at her opponent in such a way that it flew in an arc pattern. While the weapons were flying, the man went through a few handseals before slamming them on the ground, raising a wall made of earth. The wall was enough to stop the weapons from reaching the two ninjas.

Tenten shrugged at that while taking several others kunais with paper attached on them, before launching them above, on the left and on the right side of the wall, covering any road by which her opponents could attacks. Before the exploding tags were triggered, she was forced to jump backward dodging a hand that erupted from the ground. Once touching the ground, she lost her balance because of the shockwave that came from the explosion that occurred soon after, and because of this, she didn't notice the second ninja that appeared beside her with her arm cackling with electricity coursing through it.

"_Raiton: lightning palm_" The girl yelled before slamming her palm on Tenten's back causing the latter to arch in shock before slowing falling toward the ground.

The Kumo kunoichi was about to finish the job when Tenten erupted in smoke, letting place to a charred log. _'Shit, she must have replaced herself before the attack_' she thought while looking for Tenten. She quickly found her target because of the explosion that occurred several meters away from her position. She looked at where the explosion was coming from and saw Tenten in the sky slowly falling toward the crater that was created from the explosion. Squinting her eyes, she also noticed the Iwa ninja falling too, but unlike Tenten, he seemed unconscious from whatever happened.

She quickly used Tenten's distraction to run toward her with her hand being covered in lightning again. Upon being on arm reach, she swung her palm directly toward Tenten's heart. The latter widened her eyes upon seeing this, and closed them waiting for her end, as she knew that she couldn't dodge it this time.

The palm was just an inch away from her heart when everything slowly dissolved, letting place to Tenten standing upon an elevated platform and unlike before, she was completely unarmed.

"_Simulation over. You failed_" A voice said in a booming sound, making Tenten open her eyes and look around herself before releasing a sigh after seeing she was back in Naruto's training ground.

"What went wrong?" Another voice said to her left prompting her to look in that direction, only to see her teammate Naruto looking at her with the same impassive look he was famous for. After a moment, she reminded herself that he had asked a question to which she hadn't answered yet. Thinking about the whole simulation she couldn't help but look at him with a bewildered look that yelled 'I don't know'.

"I told you before you began this test that the primary goal of this simulation wasn't to win but to make a strategy that would effectively stop your opponents from implementing their own strategy."

Naruto said after seeing the look Tenten gave him.

"I know what you said, and that is what I did, or at least think I did. I analyzed everything I could about my surrounding, trying to detect any traps, then I attacked first to stop them from taking the reins in this fight, all the while implementing my own strategy to block theirs. I even dispatched the male ninja and if it wasn't for the last attack he did, I would have won." She said while glaring at Naruto for implying that she didn't listen to what he said.

But Naruto wasn't about to be shut down like that. "I commend you on trying to look for any traps before doing anything, but that is the only good thing I will say about your performance. Attacking first doesn't mean you are stopping your opponent from implementing his strategy. Maybe you are even acting just like he predicted. To stop someone's strategy, you need to know what it entails first, because by knowing your opponent strategy, you have done about eighty percent of the work. This platform was created to train your strategy making even during a battle."

"What you should have done was first analyze your opponents, everything about them. What did you deduce from them?" he asked Tenten who was looking at him.

"Only that they were from Kumo and Iwa, if their headbands were anything to go by."

"Fair enough, but what proof do you have that those headbands weren't stolen ones?" Naruto asked to Tenten who had nothing to say about that, not having thought about such thing.

"This will be your first lesson then: _assume nothing_ or in other words _never trust what your opponent show you without any proofs_." Seeing Tenten was still listening to him, he continued.

"There were others facts you could have noticed about your opponents. Like the fact that the male had rough hands, which meant that, he worked physically and with the earth too. This was enough to deduce that he was strong physically and could have earth as elemental affinity. The woman had a small stature and was stiff, always contracting her hands. That could mean several things but the most accurate idea would be that she was a lightning user. These are the things you were supposed to detect."

Naruto finished while Tenten widened her eyes at everything her teammate was able to detect with only a small glance. She couldn't help but marvel at that and determination filled her to reach such level.

"Right now, you don't have to worry about creating a strategy to stop your opponents. You first need to be able to determine every strategy possible, every action that you think your opponent can make, and all of this as fast as you can."

"I can understand why it is important to be able to do that, but how would that help me if I know what my opponents will do but I can't counter it?" Tenten asked wondering what good it would do, but she wasn't expecting the answer she received.

"That will help you in knowing when to retreat to fight another day." Naruto said with such seriousness that she was certain something like that already happened to him. Nodding at him, she went back to the platform and sent chakra to it before her world went black for a moment before changing to another scenery, completely different from the last one.

While Tenten went back to her training, Naruto moved toward another training facility to begin his own training, as he didn't want his teammate seeing it.

It wasn't long before he arrived in a facility filled with rock of any kind. The area looked like a mountain range with several rocky formations. Exactly what he wanted for the training he would be doing this day. He chose an area where the ground was flat before sitting on the ground in a meditation posture.

Soon enough, Naruto had reduced his breathing to such a low level that for anyone else, they would have a coughing fit to breathe in some needed air. What he was trying to do wasn't easy to say the least. After all, who said that it was easy to become a wind _master?_

Then again, unlike other ninjas, he considered that what he was trying to do was to complete the first part of the training to become a wind master. Indeed, he had divided the training of the wind elemental chakra, in two parts. The first one consisted in mastering the wind available in the air to be able to create sharpened wind, concussive force or even whirlwind. The second part was completely different though. It involved the understanding and mastery of vacuum.

He had seen Danzo use vacuum but couldn't help but be disappointed by the way the latter used it. He had a very good idea and understanding of what one could really do if they were to master vacuum, and what Danzo did with it wasn't anything to gawk at, it was more like a stronger cutting wind than anything else.

But coming back to the matter at hand, Naruto had already reached the upper part of the first level and was now trying to master it by doing the one jutsu that would determine whether or not he could continue to the next level. This jutsu was very simple at first sight but the amount of work behind it was tremendous.

He just needed to surround himself with a rotating sphere of air and be able to change at will, the nature of the wind, from a sharpened wind to a concussive force.

After a few moments, the air around Naruto became agitated and slowly the air was gathering around him, rotating faster and faster with Naruto at the epicentre of the phenomena. During the whole thing, Naruto was calmly breathing in and out, trying to calm himself and control the force of nature that was the wind.

This wasn't his first try though. He had attempted it in more than one occasion and each time he had failed. But now he knew why he failed all those times. Before, he was trying to force the wind to do his binding but it was a lost battle because no matter what, he couldn't rival with the nature. Now though, he wasn't trying to force it but rather he was guiding it to do his binding. It was like he was creating a path for the wind to take, a path that couldn't be broken. This solution had several advantages because of one fact alone.

_He wasn't creating a wind current or forcing the existing ones to do his bidding._

That was the mistake that several wind users did, and this had the result of wasting huge amount of chakra to do something that could have cost you almost nothing at all. By using his wind natured chakra to create the road that the wind would take and then manipulating the air pressure, he could create a whirlwind with the amount the chakra other wind users would need to create a high C-rank jutsu.

In the field, the currents were now so strong that everyone standing across him would need a good amount of chakra to stay put on the ground, and then just as if it wasn't even there before, the current was calmed and everything went back to normal. The only difference being that Naruto was now surrounded with a see-through sphere of air that constantly rotated around him.

He opened his eyes and surveyed his surrounding, all the while looking at the sphere around him in awe. He didn't dare touch the sphere though, and instead chose to test if he could change the nature of the air. He concentrated a little in sharpening the sphere and after a moment, he noticed that the ground he was sitting on had a circular slot where the sphere was.

Nodding to himself, he change it to a concussive force and was a little surprised to see himself rose a few inch from the ground, with the sphere acting as a platform. The surprise was enough to make him lose his concentration and the wind forming the sphere was dispersed in a violent shockwave that even pushed several huge slob of earth.

His mind was already thinking of way to use that shockwave to his advantage before he slowly rose from the ground and discarded those thoughts for later. He still had training to do after all.

He took a short break after this to calm his nerves as he was still trembling from the technique he just did. While taking this break he was thinking about all of his future opponents, especially a red haired one.

_'That boy… I know I said that he was pathetic for just using one kind of jutsu for offense and defense, but even I have to admit that it is damn effective. There are several ways to bypass his defenses. The first and maybe most effective outside of a sandy field, is to use water jutsus to slow down his sand attacks, but I am not a water user, so that void this solution for me.'_

Slowly he rose from the ground and moved toward the rocky formation for the next part of his training. _'The second solution is to use my speed to outrun the sand. That is a possibility as Lee was able to do so too, but like him, I can't rely on physical attacks to do the job as it was proven that he has another layer of sand as protection. I can also use my Kekkai jutsus but I prefer to keep it for the direst situation._'

He was finally a few meters in front of a boulder the size of a house and stopped there. _'The last solution and the one I prefer is to use a jutsu powerful enough to cut through whatever protection Gaara will use, and I happen to have the perfect one in mind._'

Indeed he had one jutsu that he had been thinking about for a while now, but hadn't found the time to create it. Now that he was free, he had all the time in the world.

First, he sent chakra to his eyes to activate his _Bunsekigan_, and then he slowly moved through handseals. The rate was very slow but was understandable as he was creating something from scratch, so he had to perfectly set the instructions. This went on for almost a minute and by the end of it, he could see his chakra in a shape that described all the instructions for the jutsu.

Satisfied with what he created, he now went about reducing the amount of handseals needed, as he now had the final shape the chakra was to take. In the end, he reduced the amount of seals to thirty, but knowing the complexity of the jutsu, it was a miracle that it wasn't above the hundred. Now began the testing part.

He looked at the boulder and went through the seals before finishing with his left hand holding his right shoulder, which seemed to shine with a bluish energy. Slowly but surely, his right arm transformed in wind, just like when he used his _Fuujin_ jutsu. He frowned at the transformation though. _'I will have to hide it somehow as it is a dead giveaway.'_

Once the process was over, sweat was rolling down his forehead because of the level of focus he had to maintain just to keep the jutsu from blowing. With the jutsu done, he slowly moved his right hand to check its mobility and found that he could still move it just like before. That made him sigh in relief, but this caused him to lose his focus for just a moment. But it was enough to cause what happened next. Indeed, because of his lost of focus, he didn't keep the tight reins he had over his right arm and swung it in front of him.

By the time he gained back control, the deed was done, and he could only look in shock as the giant boulder that was in front of him was cleanly severed in two, in a vertical line. Apparently whatever did it was strong enough to even cut through the ground.

He didn't know for how long he stayed there gawking at what he had just done, and frankly speaking he didn't care one bit. His mind was going over what happened repeatedly and he couldn't find where he went wrong when creating his jutsu. The jutsu was supposed to imitate the technique Hatake Kakashi was famous for, the _Raikiri_, except with wind instead of lightning, but what he did was nothing like it. He was called back to reality when a voice said behind him.

"I see that you are as frightening as ever, Naruto – kun."

It didn't take long for Naruto to recognize the voice and a small smile formed on his lips while he turned around to look at the only person that he could say he trusted and the one that helped him in his training.

"_Sensei_" He said while smiling at the figure that stood about twenty meters away from him. The person was obviously a male going by his stature. He wore black pants with a green vest. He had white bandage fastened around the ankles and ninja sandals. Protecting his tibia was a platinum metallic guard. He also wore a necklace around his neck. The necklace was strange as it was adorned with six fangs. He also wore a black cloth that went from his neck to just under his eyes. His white spiky hairs were covering his forehead only leaving his eyes visible. Finally he wore a white coat with several red designs on it.

The person smiled under the black cloth after hearing how Naruto called him. "I thought I told you to stop calling me that. After all, the only thing I ever did was give you some pointer when you asked."

"That was enough to solve several of my problems so to me, you are my teacher." Knowing that it was a lost battle, the person shrugged and moved around the training facility, inspecting it.

"Did you come here for training?" Naruto asked to his sensei who slowly nodded his head. "Yeah that was the idea, but it seems that it is already in use." He looked pointedly at Naruto whom knew that the latter wanted some explanations.

"You must be wondering why I brought someone here, don't you?" He sighed knowing there was no escaping that. His sensei knew him since he was little so it was very difficult to divert his attention or outright lie to him.

"I am simply enacting plan C."

The moment Naruto said that, the person widened his eyes and looked at him with a strange look that even sent shiver down Naruto spine. At that time, it reminded Naruto that he may be powerful but he was still far away from his sensei's league. One thing that did calm him though, was the fact that even the so-called sannin wouldn't hold a candle of the person that was before him.

"So you finally chose someone for that plan of yours then." He questioned Naruto who nodded quietly. "Why her though and why now? For that matter, why did you chose to reveal your bloodline now, because I know you well enough to know that you could have got the same results in the exam, without using your bloodline."

This time, it was Naruto who smirked as he looked at his sensei, knowing that when it came to strategy, he was in a league all of his own. "Tell me sensei, what is the most important reason villages participate in this exams?"

"For advertising." The man answered without hesitation.

"Indeed. That means that almost everyone in the world will know whatever happens during this exam. Now answer this question for me. What is the best way to draw someone from the shadow?"

This time, he took a few moments to answer. "By baiting him with what he want… Oh!" Naruto smirked as his sensei reached the correct conclusion as to why he chose to reveal his bloodline to the world.

"Are you sure they will take the bait though? You may have done this all for nothing." He said skeptically but Naruto just waved his concerns. "They WILL take the bait. They have searched for the existence of a member of the Namikaze clan for too long to let this chance slip by. I am even willing to bet that by the end of this exam, they will make their moves to at least confirm the existence of the compound."

The man just looked at Naruto with renewed interest. "No matter how many times I see you create perfect strategy, I am still stunned by how far you can plan ahead. I assume that you are finally ready then, that means I have to prepare myself too."

The man finally said before going toward another training facility where he knew he could train without uninvited guest. But before he got out of the training ground he said something that made Naruto's blood ran cold.

"Before I forget, I also came to warn you that _she _has decided to come back by the end of the exams."

It was a good thing that the man decided to say it once he was close to the exit, because by the time he was out of sight and thus well away from the training ground, an explosion of epic proportion occurred there. In the center of it all, stood Naruto with a look of pure rage on his otherwise impassive face. He clenched his fists so much that blood was leaking from it. Surrounding him was a strange purple energy that seemed to distort even the space around him.

But he was perfectly justified to be this angry though. After all, who wouldn't be after hearing that the person that was behind the death of your mother was coming back?

That night, Tenten was forced to wait until late in the night to be able to go back to her home, as Naruto completely forgot about her until he was calm enough.

**10 DAYS BEFORE THE FINALS –**

The finals of the chuunin exams were fast approaching and only a few days were left. While events of all kinds were unveiled, two of the most important ones were about to take place, and strangely enough at the same time.

In a sandy field, several people slowly walked toward their destination. Surrounding them was a caravan and given their disposition, they were guarding whatever the caravan contained. Inside it was none other than the current Kazekage. Despite the heat outside, he was still wearing his Kage attire and didn't seem to be affected in the slightest by the temperature.

Four ninjas stood guard around the caravan, each one standing at one of its corners.

Currently, the contingent was passing through a canyon, so they were particularly alert for any kind of ambush, not that they expected any as no one knew the path they chose to bring their kage to Konoha.

Unfortunately for them, their luck seemed to have run out that day, as standing above them, at the edge of the canyon was none other than Danzo himself. Beside him stood two ninjas, his personal guards and his most powerful members of Root.

Danzo watched as the caravan slowly moved under them and snorted. "It seems that the Kazekage is as arrogant as ever, for not taking more guards to protect himself in case of an attack. But who am I not to take advantage of this situation."

Without even looking at his bodyguards, he addressed them. "Torune, Fu, go!"

* * *

In Konoha, another event was also taking place. Unlike the above mentioned, this one would decide the future of the Hyuga clan. Two young girls stood in a ring while several members of the Hyuga clan surrounded them.

Those girls were none other than Hyuga Hinata and Hyuga Hanabi. Sisters by blood, but that was where the similarities ended.

While one was gentle to everyone, the other was cold.

While one disliked fighting, the other thrived in it.

While one was discarded like a failure, the other was trained since birth to be the most powerful Hyuga to foul this earth.

The elders of the clan, each sporting a smirk, stood close to the ring. The fact that their scheme went by without any itch certainly played a huge part in this. They didn't and couldn't have known that their actions would bring about the end of their side of the family. But they were too proud to notice the wind of change that blew in their faces.

Too proud to see what was in front of their very eyes.

Too proud to see that they were being manipulated all along.

But soon they will be forced to discard the veil that blinded them from the truth.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

I hope you liked this chapter. Now reviews if you liked the chapter or if you have a comment to add.

Next chapter coming soon.


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